1^st (2) Kenny McKinstry/Noel Orr (Subaru WRC) 11.31.9

2^nd (3) Eugene Donnelly/Barry Watt (Subaru WRC) 11.36.2

3^rd (9) Denis Biggerstaff/Robin McCandless (6R4) 11.42.8

4^th (1) Patrick Snijers/Willie McKee (Subaru WRC) 11.50.2

5^th (12) Glenn Allen/Brian McCracken (Escort WRC) 11.54.7

6^th (10) Trevor Moore/Roy Wilson (Esc.Cos) 12.01.5

7^th (8) Niall McShea/Wm. Mavitty (Lancer N) 12.02.8

8^th (5) Ollie O'Donovan/Conor Bruton (Subaru WRC) 12.07.6

9^th (11) Will Nicholls/Nick Broom (Subaru WRC) 12.10.1

10^th (22) Richard Hogg/Mark Hanna (Lancer N) 12.15.7

With just 2 stages to go Kenny McKinstry is looking ever more solid at the front of this Triton Showers Lurgan Park Rally, but at the same time the gap is only 4.3 seconds and Eugene Donnelly in 2^nd place is not relaxing for one second. Kenny commented at the finish of that 6^th test "A good clean run, we took no chances but the road is getting fairly greasy." When Donnelly heard McKinstry’s time – 0.8 of a second faster than his own – he banged the steering wheel and said "I just can’t him. We didn’t have a great start, the car seemed a bit choked up, but then we had a great run, fabulous over the gravel". Biggerstaff in 3^rd was lucky to hold on to his place, his 6R4 went off the road before the bridge and collided with one of those red dog poo boxes. There was little damage and Denis was lucky to only lose 2 or 3 seconds. Patrick Snijers in 4^th said at stage finish "I can do no more with this car, I’m on the limit, I can’t improve unless someone else has a problem".

Glenn Allen in 5^th was dripping sweat at stage finish, Glenn set a fabulous time, 3^rd fastest. When asked about the anti lag system which he had reported earlier to be malfunctioning, he told us that it was still not working, he was just simply driving his guts out to set the times. Trevor Moore was only 3s behind Glenn starting the stage, suddenly the gap was up to near 7, and even Snijers can’t afford to relax at the rate Allen is going.

In Group N Niall McShea has really settled down to a pace now – he was 3s faster than Richard Hogg through that 6^th stage. Hogg was .7 seconds faster than Dickie Curran to move into 2^nd in the category.

Keith White’s advantage in the 2 wheel drive stakes looks ever more secure, Garry Jennings had a very time consuming spin in stage 6, and dropped possibly 15 seconds.

More news later

BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net