1^st (6) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Lancer WRC) 1.40.57.3

2^nd (19) Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Lancer WRC) 1.41.04.9

3^rd (1) Gareth MacHale/Paul Nagle (Focus WRC) 1.41.54.6

4^th (5) Derek McGarrity/Chris Patterson (Impreza WRC) 1.41.59.2

5^th (10) Kevin Lynch/Allan Harryman (Impreza WRC) 1.42.15.3

6^th (2) Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr (Focus WRC) 1.43.10.5

7^th (8) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 1.43.30.5

8^th (9) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.43.55.2

9^th (12) Paul Harris/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza WRC) 1.44.02.8

10^th (15) Stephen Murphy/M Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 1.44.33.8

Car No.3 Colin McRae/Nicky Grist (Metro 6R4) 1.44.43.9: Colin leads the National Rally and would be 11^th o/a in the international.

Andrew Nesbitt finished today’s leg with just 7s of a lead over his Mitsubishi team mate Mark Higgins, both drivers poised for a battle royale on the final day of this Shell Donegal Rally over such classic stages as Atlantic Drive.  Andrew Nesbitt changed the compound of his Pirelli tyres for the last 3 stages and found the car handling really well.  His one problem was a small bit of brake fade on Knockalla which he said was “not comfortable”. Andrew went on to explain that the pedal came back before stage finish and he was very pleased to be leading the rally. Mark Higgins said again that he had played it very safe in tyre choice just in case it did rain and it was a very safe option. Mark was fastest on the last Saturday stage despite having his windscreen badly smeared with bird droppings.  Mark said. “Otherwise everything else was great”.  Gareth MacHale in 3^rd felt that his notes were just too slow for the Garrygort stage and he was disappointed to drop a fair bit of time there which has almost put him into the clutches of Derek McGarrity in his Subaru. Derek in 4^th said “I’m happy enough”.

Kevin Lynch in 5^th place said. “We are there or thereabouts, not setting the roads alight, I’m letting others do that”.  Matthew Wilson in 6^th reckons he would have been right up there if it hadn’t been for this morning’s puncture and said of his own performance “We’ve had a decent pace, not flat out, but its been a long day”. Colin McRae reported that he had very similar problems over the Knockalla sequence of stages as he had earlier, the throttle return spring was broken and the revs were shooting up, as well as that the new clutch wasn’t adjusted properly. One comment that the former world champion made was “A bit of a bad day, it was disappointing that the car gave trouble over these classic stages, I was really looking forward to them”. 

Eugene Donnelly has been shooting up the classification through today’s stages and is now on a total of 1.47.45.1. Eugene said “We had a real good run on Knockalla very respectable for me and the car as it’s a real power stage. On that last stage, Garrygort, I had a real bout of hay fever, sneezing away even as I was being counted down, but it wasn’t so bad once I got going”.  Eamonn Boland in 7^th reported a good run over the last few stages and said. “We’ll sneak her home now”.  Austin MacHale lost a couple of seconds when he caught up with McRae on Knockalla, that was on the narrow section just before the church. Otherwise Austin reported no problems. Paul Harris in 9^th was a full 30s faster on his 2^nd run over Garrygort which demonstrates how much time he lost earlier with the broken brake disc. Stephen Murphy rounds off the top 10. We reported earlier that Patrick Elliott had all sorts of handling problems because his Impreza had no rear boot and spoiler, he’s 11^th and hoping to get a boot fitted for the morning.

Shaun Gallagher is 12^th, and leading Group N. Shaun a little worried about a noise that has come into his lancer’s front differential. Hugh M Doherty is 13^th in his new Focus and going well.  Seamus Leonard is up to 2^nd gpN now ahead of Roy White. Phillip Morrow lost some time in Knockalla when his Lancer broke a wheel over a jump, Phillip also hurt his back in the incident and said that generally he is struggling to come to grips with the tarmac stages.

In the National part of the rally Colin McRae still leads from Dessie Keenan while John Dalton has now come into 3^rd ahead of Camillus Bradley.