RALLY NEWS NO.3                   Castletownbere - Sunday 11.30am
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD  HISTORICS/POST HISTORICS AFTER STAGE 4
1st (87) Jim McRae/Paul Gullick (Porsche 911) 39.52
2nd (19) Graham Samuel/Clare Samuel (Escort) 40.23
3rd (22) Chris Browne/Ali Cornwell (Escort) 40.25
4th (2) Dessie Nutt/Geraldine McBride (Porsche 911) 40.29
5th (3) Frank Cunningham/Ross Forde (Cooper S) 41.13
6th (24) Kevin Flanagan/Adrian Parry (Mini) 41.38
7th (12) Todd Falvey/Dan Barry (Porsche 911) 41.35
8th (6) Steve Smith/Phil Spurge (Porsche 911) 41.46
9th (18) Barry Duggan/Pat Cashman (Escort) 41.49**
10th (8) Martin Ward/Linda Conroy (Manta A) 41.54
** Barry Duggan has road penalties from earlier which still have to be applied.

The above is a mixture of Historic & Post Historic. Jim McRae is in a Post Historic car, as is Graham Samuel and Chris Browne, which makes Dessie Nutt the highest placed Historic, Frank Cunningham 2nd Historic.
Jim McRae backed off slightly through the Ardgroom stage. Dessie Nutt for example was 8s faster, and fastest overall we have unofficially as Chris Browne in his Post Historic Escort.  McRae reported earlier that his Porsche had bottomed out quite heavily after a jump, and he was trying to save the 911 through the bumps of Ardgroom.  Otherwise Jim is going well. Dessie Nutt seemed to waken up somewhat after a lacklustre start on Molls Gap, and Dessie admitted that he pushed very hard through the Ardgroom stage. Frank Cunningham also got the finger out after Molls Gap, and set a real good time through Kilmakilloge, but put a wheel into a drain and also had an overshoot in Ardgroom.  The Cods Head stage caused quite a drama when John Farrell crashed his Post Historic Escort into a wall, and scattered a lot of debris, as well as bits of Escort, over the road.  Joe Connolly stopped for probably about a minute, both to help John and to clear the road. Steve Smith in the Porsche also stopped, he possibly lost about half a minute.  Steve had been going pretty well up to that point, and should really be higher than his 8th place on the leaderboard.
Further retirements besides John Farrell included Mike Doody. His Mini was parked at the end of the Ardgroom test with what appeared to be a lack of front wheels, although this information has still to be confirmed. Philip Wylie's MGB was stopped in Ardgroom.
Martin Ward is shown 10th on the leaderboard, his Manta suffering a noisy back axle, also lots of oil smoke and fumes first reported on Molls Gap.  Mervyn Johnston is just 1s outside the above leaderboard. The Tullyhommon Flyer built a lovely new Historic Mini Cooper for this rally (if that makes sense!) and is still getting used to the car.  Mark I'Anson is running at No.38 in a nice red Porsche 911, it is his first time in an Historic Porsche, first time in Kerry, and he is starting to get into the swing of things!
Car 32 Craig MacWilliams hand braked his Escort at the harbour in Kilmakilloge and smacked the nose of the car into a wall. Ray Hilliard commented of his stages so far. "I can't see, we've no power, the oil light is flashing on, and we're fine!"  More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON  www.rallynews.net