Fastest through stage 3 was Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy in their Subaru. Garry was 10s quicker than Donagh Kelly. Donagh still maintains that he is not pushing too hard, all his efforts going into winning the Clonakilty Blackpudding Tarmac Championship. Garry said after the stage that he was hitting a real good pace. He has been penalised 40s for being late into stage 2. It was thought that the penalty would not stand but Clerk of the Course, Gary Milligan, assures us that it will. Stephen Wright maintains a very good 3rd place. He felt the clutch pedal of his Fiesta R5 coming loose during the stage and also there was some fluid in the footwell which will all need sorted out later on. Desi Henry was really cool at stage finish considering just how hard he is going through these technically difficult stages. Desi is looking very solid in 2nd place at the moment.
Derek McGeehan continues to lead the NI Championship part of the rally from Frank Kelly. However, Frank`s Escort has a flashing alternator light. This does not sound like good news when he has one more stage to do in darkness. Jonny Greer picked a harder compound tyre for that 3rd stage, and although he told us it worked well, he did drop a few seconds compared to Desi Henry and Stephen Wright. Daniel McKenna, along with the David Greer mechanics, has made quite a few adjustments to the Toyota GT86, and the time for stage 3 seemed a bit improved.
Jon Armstrong had a brilliant run through stage 3, covering the 12.9 miles in 11.34s. Mind you, Rob Duggan was pretty good as well, a long way from home and just 3s down. Callum Devine was disappointed to drop 16s to Armstrong, but his Opel Adam developed an inconsistent soft brake pedal through the stage. Joe McGonigle had a massive high speed slide and spin in SS3 but managed to keep his Fabia S2000 more or less on the road. The car did finish the stage with a flat wheel, but Joe reckoned it was the luckiest thing ever that he did not write it off. Ed Twomey from the Clonakilty Black Pudding business unfortunately put his Fiesta on its roof. His mechanics are trying to get the car straightened to run in Rally 2 tomorrow. Calum Duffy, master of the Mull Rally, is competing on this Ulster in an ex Colin McRae Subaru Impreza 555. It is quite a change for Calum from his rapid Escort, but he is doing well and at the last count was 21st overall.
Fastest of the Historic category over the first 2 stages was Raymond & David Johnston in their Escort RS1800. Raymond has had some bad luck recently with the engine of the car, so perhaps it is coming good here.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL & ZOE PATTERSON *Follow RallyNews on Twitter/Facebook @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
