Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage Nine

1^st (1) Kevin Lynch/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 41.13

2^nd (2) Glenn Allen/Damien Connolly (Corolla WRC) 42.01

3^rd (7) Johnny McKenna/Frank McConville (Lancer N) 42.57

4^th (14) Neil McCance/Sean Ferris (Lancer N) 43.10

5^th (5) Kieran Shaw/Crawford Henderson (Escort WRC) 43.15

6^th (11) Terry McGonigle/Stephen Casey (Lancer N) 43.49

7^th (15) Seamus Heron/Gerry McVeigh (Lancer N) 43.55

8^th (12) John McGlaughlin/David McIlroy (Lancer N) 44.03

9^th (17) Craig Bennett/Roger Bennett (Focus WRC) 44.06

10^th (4) Denis Biggerstaff/Damien McCann (Impreza WRC) 44.07

11^th Raymond Mason/Peter Martin (Lancer N) 44.08

Kevin Lynch really stamped his authority over stages 7,8 and 9 with fastest times on all to extend his lead to 48 seconds.  Kevin had a trouble free run in the Harper run Impreza while Glenn Allen was a lot happier with his Corolla .  Glenn did make a few changes in service and was much closer to Lynch over those three stages but as Glenn explained using a NI championship rally as a test session isn’t ideal but he feels that because Kevin has such a big lead they might as well try and improve the gravel settings of the car.  Kieran Shaw is now up to fifth in his older Escort WRC and professed to absolutely loving the car only to break a rear drive in the second run at Moydamlaght and with three stages still to do without service, it may be a bit of a struggle to get the car home.   

Seamus Donnelly has retired in stage eight, Bannagher, after he reported to the end of the stage by telephone that his steering had broken.  Also reported stopped in Bannagher is Stephen Moore in his GpN Impreza with a reason unknown.   John McGlaughlin has picked too soft a tyre for this group of stages and is even having to stop on road sections to cool the tyres down, and is slowly loosing time and slipping down the leaderboard.  McGlaughlin also suffered a turbo pipe coming loose on Glenshane.  Terry McGonigle is now setting competitive GpN times but is still struggling on the straights as he feels his Lancer is moving around to much.  Neil McCance turned up the wick again and was fastest GpN in stage nine after Johnny McKenna took seven seconds in Bannagher.