Donagh Kelly had a relatively smooth run through the 2nd loop of stages to hold a lead of 22s here at service. Denis Cronin in 2nd place felt that he could have done with a harder compound Pirelli tyre, but he has none available here. Daragh O`Riordan in 3rd is wringing as much as he can from the 1600 turbo engine in his Fiesta WRC and said there is nothing left over these fast stages. James Stafford reported no problems through stages 4, 5 and 6. Kevin Kelleher is at last finding some flow to his driving following all sorts of problems on the opening stages. Declan Gallagher continues to hold 6th place despite putting his Starlet in a ditch for quite a few seconds on the Ring stage. There was another corner towards the end of the Ring where there was water flowing across the road, and both Adrian Hetherington and Pat Donegan slid off the road and out of the rally there. Michael O1Brian in 7th place is having overheating problems with his Focus WRC.
There is now only a handful of seconds between Frank Kelly, Phil Collins and Wesley Patterson in 8th, 9th and 10th. Wesley`s Escort needs some welding done to the exhaust manifold. Neither Kelly or Collins report any problems. Shane Stanley in the Civic at No.94 reported that he is making adjustments to the suspension of the suspension of the car and also sent us a message `your notes are brilliant`. News of further retirements include - Gavin Rogers/Georgina Clark from Bristol who were sidelined when a wheel fell off their Escort. They hope to rejoin under Rally 2 rules. Gwyn Thomas/Anthony O`Connell retired their Puma in stage 4 when it ran out of front brakes. Jim McKenna lost a lot of time in stage 3 and there is no sign of his Escort here at service. The competitors in the Historic Rally have just completed their first stage and Adrian Kermode/Maurice Beckett in the Porsche were 26s up on John Coyle/Christie Farrell in the Sunbeam Lotus.
On the opening round of the McGrady Insurance NI C/ship at Bishopscourt with a few stages to go Derek McGarrity was leading from Kevin Barrett with Desi Henry in 3rd.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net Our thanks to Alan & Ray Verso: Dougie Hughes & Maurice Nagle. *Follow RallyNews on Twitter @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
