Through stage 4, the 2nd run over Corbally Beg, but now with torrential rain, Declan Boyle was a fraction faster than Garry Jennings in the battle for the lead, while Alistair Fisher produced a great time, 7s up on Keith Cronin, in the battle between the R5 cars.
At stage finish Jennings reported all OK while Boyle recounted a frightening moment with a big slide into an open square left. The Donegal man got away with it, but admitted he was over-driving the car. Keith Cronin described the conditions as very tricky and said he was trying to be neat and tidy. Stephen Wright had a better time than earlier and said he was getting to grips with the gears and the brakes on the Fiesta R5. Roy White reported his performance a little better but still not good. It was expected that Roy would be up battling with the top world rally cars, but he is struggling to get on the ultimate pace although he was 4th fastest in that 4th stage.
Declan Gallagher set a cracking time to extend his lead in the National category in his Garry Jennings Subaru described the road conditions as `very guttery`. Joe McGonigle was disappointed with his performance and was quite a few seconds down on the other S2000 cars. Brendan Cumiskey reported a really good run and is gradually getting used to the fantastic brakes on his new Fiesta R5. There is no time in for Chris Armstrong, he was 2nd in the National section, so Eugene Meegan in the BMW now goes up to 2nd with Wesley Patterson 3rd. Wesley said he enjoyed the stage and was finding grip in places. Peter O`Kane has retired his new Evo 10, 2 punctures and only 1 spare.
Gus Kearney had a good run over the earlier stages and was lying 2nd GpN in his Sepam backed Lancer. On stage 4 he is still lying 2nd in the category with David Guest in the lead. Gus told us that his company Sepam is currently hiring project managers, electrical-mechanical-instrumentation engineers and quantity surveyors for projects in Ireland and globally.
Welsh visitor Tomas Davis has changed the suspension on his Fiesta R5 and took some road penalties at service to facilitate the work. In the Historic Rally Ray Cunningham was leading after 4 stage in his Mini. Frank Cunningham was 2nd in his Bertie Fisher replica Sierra 4x4, but Frank had trouble with the anti lag system and the car pushed on and went into a ditch at a square right. He got going but then the clutch started to misbehave and he had trouble getting gears, so has stayed on in service to try and fix the problem and hopefully will rejoin under Rally 2. David Goose moved into 2nd with Luke McCarthy 3rd. James O`Mahony in his new K class Escort was missing after stage 3. JP McAree has had a small mechanical hiccup with his Porsche and he is rejoining after Rally 2.
NEWS JUST IN…Jennings fastest ss5. Declan Gallagher crashed SS5.
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