1^st (2) Niall Maguire/Paul McLaughlin (Impreza WRC) 8.02

= (4) Jim Harrison/Harvey Bell (Impreza WRC) 8.02

3^rd (7) Kevin Lynch/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 8.16

4^th (5) Adrian McElvanney/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 8.17

= (8) Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell (Impreza WRC) 8.17

6^th (14) Cathal Arthurs/Jakes Kelly (Accent WRC) 8.21

7^th (15) Kevin Barrett/Barry Goodman (Impreza WRC) 8.29

= (16) Alan Nesbitt/Enda Sherry (Celica) 8.29

= (17) Dessie Keenan/Fabian McShane (Lancer N) 8.29

10^th (10) David Armstrong/Ciaran Kelly (Escort WRC) 8.30

11^th (12) Sean Gallagher/Francis Kenny (Escort) 8.35

= (21) David McNulty/Keefe Kilcoyne (Escort COS) 8.35

13^th (24) Mac McKenna/John Loughran (Peugeot 205) 8.36

14^th (18) Gabriel Martin/Mark Kane (Lancer N) 8.39

Both Niall Maguire and Jim Harrison stopped the clocks on exactly the same time over the 8.5 mile Doogary opening first stage. Maguire reportedly clipped a rock in his Impreza WRC, but stated that the car was perfectly okay. Jim Harrison described his run as "Neat and Tidy", the Cheshire man right on the pace. But we are getting early reports that Harrison has gone off on the second stage and is blocking the road.

Kevin Lynch was 14 seconds slower than the leading pair, the Dungiven man seemed to be struggling for grip, Kevin saying that his tyres had definitely gone off. Adrian McElvanney was complaining of a similar problem, Adrian saying "we found that slippy, the tyres don’t seem to be working". Today is certainly warming up with temperatures already hovering around 20 degrees, and maybe this has something to do with it.

Patrick Elliott was stopped for about 15 minutes in the first stage, his newly acquired Circuit of Ireland winning Impreza S9 filling with smoke, the Cavan building contractor was at a loss to explain what the problem was but has decided not to carry on. Davy Armstrong had a good run, the Armagh man describing it as "flat out", but his time was maybe a minute wrong and we are assuming that he is on 8.30. Glenn Allen in his similar Escort WRC had intercom problems, and could not hear Damien Connolly on the pacenotes, the pair dropping almost 20 seconds to Armstrong.

Mark Courtney had two spins in his Celica, while Dessie Keenan set the pace in GpN with a time 10 seconds faster than Gabriel Martin (8.39) while Willie Fannin set a time of 8.49. Enda Keenan had not come through to the finish of stage one, the local 2wd star was reportedly fixing his Escort at the start of the stage. Leading the 2wd battle was Mac McKenna who is just off the leaderboard on a time of 8.36. Maurice Moffett had a good run in his Starlett to set a time of 8.43 while Dominic McLoughlin reported no problems and was competitive on 8.47.

More News Later Michael Patterson and Zoe Todd.