1^st (2) Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien (Impreza WRC) 2.06.34

2^nd (3) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 2.07.48

3^rd (4) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 2.08.30

4^th (5) Eamonn Boland/Damien Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 2.09.25

5^th (7) Peadar Hurson/Ian Porter (Impreza WRC) 2.10.17

6^th (8) Daniel & Michael Doherty (Impreza WRC) 2.10.50

7^th (11) Seamus Leonard/Paul McLaughlin (Impreza N) 2.14.28

8^th (14) Roy White/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 2.15.07

9^th (19) Glenn Allen/John Gallagher (Escort WRC) 2.16.39

10^th (37) Kevin Lynch/Martin McNicholl (Impreza WRC) 2.17.13

Austin MacHale has unfortunately crashed his Impreza WRC on the Atlantic Drive stage causing it to be stopped. Austin and co driver Brian Murphy are reportedly OK although the emergency services were called in as a precaution. Although lying 29^th overall in the classification overnight, Austin was running 5^th on the road behind Eamonn Boland and the first car on the scene was Peadar Hurson. Reportedly Austin was trying to get the car into a safer position off the road, but anyway Hurson was held up for a while, as were the next few cars, which means a scratch time will almost certainly be applied.

Fastest through the stage was Andrew Nesbitt with a time of 6.59. Eugene Donnelly clocked 7.03. Derek McGarrity 7.04. Eamonn Boland 7.06. Andrew commented at the end of the stage that everything was fine. Eugene said he had a good run but Derek McGarrity wasn’t at all happy, saying "The car was all over the place, its lifting up over the crests, feels like soft tyres, but that’s not the problem".

Further news from Atlantic Drive is that Welshman Glyn Jones put his Subaru WRC into a ditch, got going, so perhaps with the stage having been stopped as a result of MacHale’s accident, he will escape penalties.

Seamus Leonard continues to lead gpN from Roy White. Philip Shaw is still the best of the rear wheel drive cars from Conor Curley. Padraig Price was 3^rd best of the Escorts, but he dropped a few seconds when he had an accident in Glen. Padraig was able to keep going but Robbie Peoples was only 30s behind so could squeeze past.

Further news from Cyprus WRC is that Solberg has won from Rovanpera with Loeb 3^rd and Colin McRae 4^th. Alistair Ginley/Rory Kennedy confirmed as 8^th and best privateers.

More news after Port Lake…..with a bit of luck! BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON (with thanks to Michael Patterson and Zoe Todd)