1^st (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.07.41.6

2^nd (2) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 1.08.14.9

3^rd (6) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 1.08.55.5

4^th (11) Peadar Hurson/Damien Connolly (Impreza WRC) 1.08.57.3

5^th (3) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 1.09.35.6

6^th (8) Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell (Focus WRC) 1.09.43.0

7^th (4) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 1.09.53.2

8^th (5) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 1.09.56.4

9^th (9) Gareth Jones/David Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 1.10.23.6

10^th (22) James Foley/Dominic Markey (Lancer N) 1.12.14.0

11^th (138) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 1.12.18.9

12^th (139) Philip Morrow/Derek Brannigan (Lancer N) 1.12.21.2

Eugene Donnelly brought his Corolla WRC into the parc ferme here in Galway and told us. “I pushed very hard this afternoon, probably drove as I ever have in my life. I know for tomorrow if Tim gets his car fixed we’ll be hard pushed. The stages should suit him and he’s going hard. We’ve wrung the neck out of the Corolla delighted with the way it has turned out today. Really enjoyed it. I know my fellow competitors are talking about the so called big engine in the Corolla. I’ve nothing to hide, the engine is perfectly legal. The guys who built it have been on the phone from Germany, everything is above board and legal.”  Tim McNulty, held back today by niggly problems in his Subaru told us. “I’m driving on the door handles but the car is down on power, maybe 30 horse power down. The throttle is still sticking, we’re on full revs in corners, junctions everything. The engineers reckon they have now found the problem, the engine is sucking in air or something. Hopefully we’ll get it fixed for tomorrow but we don’t know.”  Eamonn Boland in 3^rd said that he was happy enough, that the roads were still slippy, he had more or less stuck with the same tyres.  Eamonn and Peadar Hurson have been having a massive battle for 3^rd place, Peadar is just 2s back and said he reckons he lost a little bit of time in the muddy stuff on the last stage but overall everything went well.

Derek McGarrity in 5^th place has lost time with several spins and had another spin in his Subaru on stage 8 telling us. “I’ve been trying too hard, I was having a real good cut towards the end and it didn’t pay off”.  Ray Breen in 6^th had a good steady day. Andrew Nesbitt in 7^th has had the gearbox changed in his Subaru but has more gear trouble. He has lost 6^th gear now and has no paddle shift.  Andrew said. “We’ve been driving hard enough, on the pace, but this is difficult”. 

Austin MacHale in 8^th was another to have a good run today while Gareth Jones in 9^th has switched off his Subaru launch control system in an effort to stop the car from stalling at every opportunity.

In Group N Phillip Morrow lost his advantage when he had an overshoot into a field in stage 7. It was a crest 40 turn square left, and Phillip admits he braked 5 yards too late, the Lancer charging through a gate and into a field. He joked. “I’ll have to pay these boys to keep the gates open!”  James Foley then moved into the GpN lead although he admits that he needs a lot more courage for some of the mucky slippy places. Colm Murphy is 2^nd group N and he is saying that he went much better over the last couple of stages when he changed on to a different tyre. Willie Fannin has set a fastest gpN time and he’s really putting the pressure on now. James Cullen has banged the rear of his Lancer and is 5^th gpN behind Fannin. Kevin Kelleher is 6^th in the category and a rather despondent Alan Ring 7^th following a 1m stage 7 puncture in his Subaru.

Further stories….JJ Fleming suffered another puncture in stage 7 and his Focus needs a gearbox change in the morning. JJ is 19^th o/a.  Hugh M Doherty punched a hole through the rear right door of his Impreza when he got too sideways on a square left in stage 8. Paddy White’s Impreza WRC lost its paddle gear change in stage 8 and he had to revert to the floor change. Brian O’Mahony crashed his Puma out of the rally in stage 5 when a rear suspension strut broke, the car went up a bank and fell on to its roof, happily no injuries. George Tracey retired because of turbo trouble with his 206 WRC and is competing at the Rallycross at Mondello tomorrow. Tom Holton & Francis Kenny have built up a substantial lead in the Modifieds with their Celica. Brendan Donegan is 2^nd in his Lancer and Paul Gallagher 3^rd in his Corolla. In the Historic section of the rally Ray Cunningham leads in his Mini Cooper from John Farrell in the Escort with Sean Treacey 3^rd in his BMW. Manx visitor Adrian Kermode with Maurice Beckett on the notes in their Porsche is surprisingly well down in 8^th place.  Maurice told us they are feeling just a little rusty.  More news in the morning….