Rally News No.7 Mallow Service Sunday 1.00pm

Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage Ten

1^st (5) Tim McNulty/Eugene O’Donnell (Subaru WRC) 1.33.02

2^nd (3) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O’Gorman (Impreza WRC) 1.34.00

3^rd (2) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 1.34.02

4^th (6) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Impreza WRC) 1.36.46

5^th (8) Denis Cronin/Helen Sullivan (Celica) 1.38.21

6^th (10) Tony Davies/Jakes Kelly (Impreza WRC) 1.38.44

7^th (21) James O’Sullivan/Brian Duggan ( Lancer N) 1.40.29

8^th (1) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 1.40.34

9^th (17) Willie Fannin/Mick Courtney (Impreza N) 1.40.45

10^th (24) Paddy White/Aidan Moran (Impreza WRC) 1.41.59

11^th (11) Johnny O’Sullivan/Pat Cashman (Escort WRC) 1.43.19

12^th (31) Tadag Linehan/Tony Linehan (Impreza N) 1.44.24

((12) Philip Collins/Diarmuid Falvey (Escort Mk2 M) 1.39.48**)

** leading modified rally

Eugene Donnelly has thrown the cat amongst the pigeons over the second stage this morning when he went fastest, taking 22 seconds from second placed man Derek McGarrity to leave the gap at just 2 seconds in this epic dual for the Pirelli Tarmac Championship. For Derek it was a disaster, the Pirelli Subaru’s wipers got stuck and Derek slightly overshot a junction, but more importantly the car stalled and seemed to take an age to restart, Derek summed it up when he said "Eugene didn’t take the time, we just gave him 20 seconds". Rally leader Tim McNulty extended his lead by another 13 seconds over McGarrity, his advantage now 58 seconds.

Liam McCarthy is struggling a little in the McKinstry Subaru but reckons he can go a bit harder, while the first major retirement this morning was Ollie O’Donovan. Ollie had been a strong fifth overnight, but his McKinstry Subaru has broken its gear lever, jamming it in fifth gear and semi blocking the stage. Denis Cronin dropped about 30 seconds trying to get past the stricken Subaru. Killarney’s Johnny O’Sullivan lost another couple of minutes on stage ten with a broken intercooler, a consequence of his stage nine off, but the Escort WRC driver is confident they can fix it here in service.

In GpN James O’Sullivan still leads from Willie Fannin, both drivers slightly held up with O’Donovan, but Willie Fannin was showing signs of a fight with the scenery, and just laughed "we were in the hedge". In the Ford Ka’s today is part 2 of a double header and its winner takes all as today is the final round of the championship. Daniel Barry won yesterdays counter, so today is a straight fight between him and Pat O’Connell, and O’Connell was fastest on the first stage this morning. We believe that Petter Solberg has won in Sardina, Loeb 2^nd, Sainz 3^rd and Navarra 4^th in a private Subaru. More News Later Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd