Rally News No.3 Service Macroom Saturday 2.00pm

Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage Four

1^st (2) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 37.47

2^nd (5) Tim McNulty/Eugene O’Donnell (Subaru WRC) 37.50

3^rd (3) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O’Gorman (Impreza WRC) 38.21

4^th (6) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Corolla WRC) 38.29

5^th (9) Ollie O’Donovan/David Moynihan (Subaru WRC) 39.27

6^th (8) Denis Cronin/Helen Sullivan (Celica) 39.40

7^th (10) Tony Davies/Jakes Kelly (Impreza WRC) 39.55

= (20) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 39.55

9^th (17) Willie Fannin/Mick Courtney (Impreza N) 39.58

10^th (11) Johnny O’Sullivan/Pat Cashman (Escort WRC) 40.13

((12) Philip Collins/Diarmuid Falvey (Escort Mk2 M) 40.07*)

* Modified section of rally

Eugene Donnelly has dramatically snatched the lead of this Cork 20 rally after stage four from Tim McNulty as much through circumstance as anything else. Eugene was second fastest to Tim McNulty through stage three and was then 13 seconds faster than Derek McGarrity through stage four. Unfortunately stage four was stopped after Donie O’Sullivan rolled the Bewleys Focus. Both Donie and co driver Paul Nagle are unhurt and infact the car is not to badly damaged after just getting slightly out of shape and flipping over. As a result at the moment it would seem that Tim McNulty will be awarded Derek McGarrity’s time for the stage which is of course 13 seconds slower than Eugene Donnelly. Co Meath man McNulty was understandably a little upset but accepts that rules are rules.

Behind the leaders Ollie O’Donovan has found his glasses and admits to being a lot happier while Liam McCarthy is doing a good job in fourth with the McKinstry Impreza despite loosing some time with a stone stuck in a front right hand wheel. Eamonn Boland continues to go well and was second fastest through stage three, one second down on McNulty but as co driver Francis Regan pointed out, they have a long way to go to even get back into the top ten.

Colm Murphy continues to lead GpN in his Impreza but Willie Fanin has closed to within three seconds. Munster Joinery man Alan Ring has retired his N10 Impreza here at service after a rare front wheel bearing failure in stage three, while James O’Sullivan has done a patch up job on his rear suspension, but describes it as being fairly hairy.

Phil Collins leads the modified section of the rally and would infact be ninth overall if he was classified in the main rally. Fergal Allen had been second in his BMW M3 but has lost a bucket load of time over stages three and four with a bad misfire. Local retirements include Willie Power who has retired his Darrian with transmission problems and Ger O’Connell has stopped with no front drive. Daniel Barry leads the Ford Ka’s by eight seconds from Brian O’Mahoney with Pat O’Connell one second behind in third. On the Trackrod rally David Higgins leads Mark Higgins with Austin McHale 30 seconds down in sixth. More News Later Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd