1^st (13) Tapio Laukkanen/Harri Kaapro (Impreza WRC) 1.23.29.2

2^nd (2) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.23.37.6

3^rd (1) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.24.10.5

4^th (3) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 1.24.59.2

5^th (4) Eamonn Boland/Damien Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 1.25.06.6

6^th (9) Tim McNulty/Julian Nangle (Impreza WRC) 1.25.56.3

7^th (23) James Foley/Lisa Roe (Lancer N) 1.28.17.6

8^th (16) Aaron MacHale/Ger McMonagle (Lancer N) 1.29.20.9

9^th (25) Dessie Keenan/Laura Keenan (Lancer N) 1.29.31.0

10^th (38) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 1.29.39.8

11^th (12) Denis Cronin/Helen O'Sullivan (Celica) 1.29.42.4

12^th (17) George Cullen/Jakes Kelly (Impreza WRC) 1.30.49.6

Eugene Donnelly was fastest, but by just one tenth of a second, over Tapio Laukkenan over this 13^th stage Ballybuck. The gap is still over 8s and Eugene admitted "I felt I took quite a few chances, it was a good run, but I’ll maybe have to take it back a peg. The car is fine". As Tapio Laukkanen’s Impreza came to a halt and Pirelli’s Dick Cormack checked the tyre pressures, the Finnish driver took time to tell us. "We were pushing quite hard, it’s quite tight now with Eugene, we must carry on". Austin MacHale was next to the stop line and he was 4s behind the pair in front. When asked about the state of his Focus clutch, Austin just crossed his fingers. Derek McGarrity’s car was next down and it sported a nice new mudguard on the front left, to replace the one smashed with yesterday’s puncture. Derek was on a par with Austin timewise, and indeed so was Boland, nothing separating the three.

Further back, Colm Murphy set fastest gpN time although his McKinstry prepared Impreza is now suffering a noisy gearbox, but he is pressing on nonetheless. Dessie Keenan was 2^nd fastest gpN, 4s quicker than James Foley. But then James is looking fairly secure in the Group N lead.

Denis Cronin’s Celica is sandwiched in between the gpN cars. Denis has got his car back on full song with the anti lag working, and he had a respectable time. Donie O’Sullivan’s Focus was stopped for a long time in stage 11, and is as good as out of the rally but still going. Donie taking the opportunity to clock up stage miles. The problem with the car was a faulty Ecu, that has been replaced, it is still not quite right, but Donie was only a couple of seconds slower than McNulty through the stage.

Glen Wilson lost his lead over Guy Woodcock on this Ballybuck stage, only by half a second, but the 2 are having a mighty battle, and Glen’s F2 Escort losing its power steering belt once again did him no favours. Jack Sleator is into the top 15 in his gpN Lancer, but did not have a fantastic time through the stage. Tony Davies in the Metro went very well despite a little handling difficulties, and then its Paddy White in his Impreza WRC, using the day for match practice really after yesterday’s problems. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net