Rally News No.5a End Of Stage Eight Saturday 6.00pm

Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage Eight

1^st (5) Tim McNulty/Eugene O’Donnell (Subaru WRC) 1.14.59

2^nd (3) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O’Gorman (Impreza WRC) 1.15.35

3^rd (2) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.15.57

4^th (6) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Corolla WRC) 1.17.40

5^th (9) Ollie O’Donovan/David Moynihan (Subaru WRC) 1.18.20

6^th (8) Denis Cronin/Helen Sullivan (Celica) 1.19.26

7^th (10) Tony Davies/Jakes Kelly (Impreza WRC) 1.20.01

8^th (11) Johnny O’Sullivan/Pat Cashman (Escort WRC) 1.20.49

9^th (21) James O’Sullivan/Brian Duggan ( Lancer N) 1.21.19

10^th (24) Paddy White/Aidan Moran (Impreza WRC) 1.21.36

11^th (1) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 1.22.19

((12) Philip Collins/Diarmuid Falvey (Escort Mk2 M) 1.20.05**)

** Leading Modified Rally

Rally leader Tim McNulty has finished his first day of the Cork 20 Rally with a solid 36 second lead over Tarmac champion Derek McGarrity. Tim dropped a few seconds to McGarrity over stages seven and eight, the Meath man being a touch conservative with his tyre choice but still delighted to be leading the rally overnight, Tim saying "that was a bit of a compromise on the tyres but we are obviously very happy to be here". Derek McGarrity on the other hand made a perfect tyre choice for the first time today, Derek saying "we picked the right Pirelli tyre – absolutely perfect for those two stages", Derek still is 22 seconds ahead of Eugene Donnelly. Eugene Donnelly was far from downbeat about his earlier accident, the Maghera man telling us that "the car is perfect, the damage is all cosmetic, but we picked the wrong tyre for those last two stages, an intermediate pattern which was a no risk situation", Eugene pretty much matching McGarrity over the two stages.

Eamonn Boland lies just outside the top ten with a string of fast times after his earlier puncture this morning. Last years Cork 20 winner was actually fastest over stage seven and is swapping times with the rally leaders.

In GpN James O’Sullivan leads from Willie Fannin by just over a minute. O’Sullivan in the 023 Tiles Lancer is battling on with his suspension problems while Willie Fannin is fighting back from his earlier puncture with two very fast times over the final stages. Colm Murphy got running again after replacing his gear box but at the moment we have no confirmed times. Phil Collins continues to lead the modified rally and was much happier as the roads dried out. After stage six Daniel Barry leads the Ford Ka’s with Pat O’Connell moving into second and Brian O’Mahoney dropping back to third. More News In The Morning …. Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd