1^st (3) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 38.41.9

2^nd (13) Tapio Laukkanen/Harri Kaapro (Impreza WRC) 38.53.5

3^rd (1) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 38.58.1

4^th (2) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 38.59.7

5^th (4) Eamonn Boland/Damien Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 39.32.5

6^th (9) Tim McNulty/Julian Nangle (Impreza WRC) 40.11.6

7^th (8) Donie O'Sullivan/Paul Nagle (Focus WRC) 40.36.9

8^th (15) Roy White/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 41.35.5

9^th (23) James Foley/Lisa Roe (Lancer N) 41.55.5

10^th (16) Aaron MacHale/Ger McMonagle (Lancer N) 42.01.1

THE ABOVE TIMES ARE VERY UNOFFICIAL:

Derek McGarrity continues to hold on to first place, but Tapio Laukkanen turned in a scorcher of a time on stage 5 to close the gap slightly following the Finn’s mishap on stage 4. McGarrity did have a half spin on that stage. Austin MacHale lost his momentum on stage 5 when his Focus WRC brake pedal went to the floor about 2 miles into the 11.3 mile stage.

Eugene Donnelly gets more accustomed to his Corolla with every mile, and although he is still running with the anti lag system turned off. Eugene is coming right on to the pace. Laukkanen commented at service in "We’ve had no problems on the last 2 stages, but I’m not driving that hard. Now we will check the times and make plans for the rest of the day". Making plans isn’t that easy for the drivers – there are periods of bright sunshine when the roads start to dry up, and then suddenly there will be a small shower of rain to make the roads as slippy as ever.

Missing at this service is Maurice Gass and his new Hyundai, the car is reportedly parked at the roadside.

In Group N Roy White has turned in a couple of really quick times and is getting away slightly from James Foley, although the latter’s Lancer is suffering slight clutch slip. Aaron MacHale is coming on to the pace nicely and has now nudged into the top 10 just ahead of Denis Cronin. Although, as said above, the times are very provisional as yet. Denis told us he is still learning the new Celica. Following his earlier damage, Willie Fannin has settled down and set a fastest gpN time through stage 6, but has over a minute to make up on the gpN leaders.

Colm Murphy caught Guy Woodcock on the 5^th stage and lost a few seconds, Colm not that far off the gpN pace. Glenn Wilson in the similar F2 Escort to Woodcock’s suffered a broken power steering belt over stages 5 and 6, and although he was ahead of Woodcock, he thinks he may have now lost the advantage.

More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net