UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 4

1ST (5) Paul Harris/Eugene O'Donnell (Impreza) 37.53

2ND (4) Eamonn Boland/Anthony Nestor (Subaru WRC) 38.48

3RD(22) David Armstrong/Herbie Blackburn (Escort) 39.38

4TH (8) Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Celica) 40.02

5TH (25) Patrick Elliott/Martin Cahill (Impreza) 40.07

6TH (15) Roy White/Des Cooney (Lancer EVO6 GpN) 40.12

7TH (19) Jimmy Lambert/James Coleman (Escort RS) 40.17

8TH(6) Tim McNulty/Julien Nangle (Subaru Impreza) 40.35

9TH (18) Kieran Molloy/Brian Boland (Lancer GpN) 40.50

10TH (32) Tom Holton/Andrew Cullen (Celica) 40.53

11TH (31) John Sheehan/Tom Sheehan (Subaru) 41.06

It was big drama here at the racecourse service area as local star Frank Meagher apologised to the other leading drivers, having blocked stage three when the Focus WRC's throttle cable snapped. Frank tried desperately to get the car going again, flicking all sorts of switches in his efforts, eventually he tied the offending throttle cable back in place with his bootlace. As a result Frank dropped nearly seven minutes which effectively puts him out of the reckoning. The rest of the drivers will now take a scratch time for the stage of nine minutes.

Paul Harris continues to stretch his lead at the head of the field, although he was slightly slower than Meagher through stage four, but now holds a 55 second advantage over Eamonn Boland. Eamonn reports no problems in his Impreza world rally car while David Armstrong having felt that he was a bit rusty is going really well in third. Roy White continues to dominate GpN in his FESP Lancer, and last year's GpN champion Patrick Elliott seems to be getting the hang of his new Impreza and holds a good fifth place just ahead of Roy.

In the Ford KA Championship John Carroll leads Trevor Harding by almost a minute with Gerry Keyes in third. On the Welsh Rally Michael Brew leads the Peugoet's from Gary Jennings and Rory Gallaghan third, conditions apparently very wet and Max McKillen and Paul Nagle had crashed out of the rally, both crew members unhurt.Tom Holton is getting to grips with his Celica on the edge of the top ten while Tom Randles is experimenting with power steering in his Escort Mk2 and is an a total of 41.58. More News Later Michael Patterson and Zoe Todd