1^st (2) Niall Maguire/Paul McLaughlin (Impreza WRC) 50.35

2^nd (5) Adrian McElvaney/Paul Goodman (Impreza WRC) 51.16

3^rd (14) Cathal Arthurs/Jakes Kelly (Accent WRC) 51.37

4^th (8) Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell (Impreza WRC) 51.42

5^th (10) David Armstrong/Ciaran Kelly (Escort WRC) 52.32

6^th (12) Sean Gallagher/Francis Kenny (Escort) 52.41

7^th (17) Dessie Keenan/Fabian McShane (Lancer N) 53.04

8^th (21) David McNulty/Keefe Kilcoyne (Escort COS) 53.26

9^th (15) Kevin Barrett/Barry Goodman (Impreza WRC) 53.31

10^th (26) Enda Keenan/Sean Moriarity (Escort) 53.37

11^th (27) Maurice Moffett/Jason McKenna (Starlet) 53.38

12^th (19) Mark Courtney/Michael Courtney (Celica) 53.39

Niall Maguire was looking pretty relaxed as he pulled into service here at the Hillgrove Hotel, a four times winner on his local event, Niall has stretched his lead to 41 seconds following an impressive time on the fifth stage when he took 17 seconds from Adrian McElvaney. McElvaney reports no problems with his Impreza but admits he has no answer to Niall Maguire’s pace. Cathal Arthurs reinforced his third place when he took a further three seconds from Ray Breen on stage six following Breen’s earlier overshoot on stage four, Ray ruing the error here at the service in control.

Kevin Barrett had a few disasters on that loop of stages, the Triton man got a puncture in stage five dropping almost half a minute, then his Impreza WRC stopped for no reason in stage six loosing almost a minute to the leaders dropping Kevin down the leaderboard to ninth.

GpN leader Dessie Keenan punctured in stage five dropping a least ten seconds, but his nearest GpN rival Gabriel Martin is reportedly stopped with steering problems. Damien Hagan had been third in GpN / 13^th overall after stage three, he is also reportedly stopped in stage six with mechanical problems, John and James Cairns are running late on the road following a puncture. Willie Fannin is still going strong in GpN, we have him on a total of 54.03 and reckon that he is now second in the category following Gabriel Martin’s misfortunes.

The 2wd drive battle continues to rage with only two seconds separating Enda Keenan and Maurice Moffett. Enda was the faster on stage five taking six seconds from Maurice, while Maurice turned the tables on stage six taking seven back. Mac McKenna is running slightly later on the road after his 205 developed a misfire and he dropped 20 seconds on stage six to the 2wd leaders. Dominic McLaughlin had been going well but retired when a stone smashed a front brake calliper. Just for interest the Irish Sports Council ramdomly drug tested ten of today’s competitors at this morning’s drivers briefing, we are pleased to report that everybody passed. 

More News Later Michael Patterson and Zoe Todd