Persistent rain over the Donegal countryside looks like making this 3rd and final day a pretty damp affair. It is certainly damp for Garry Jennings/Neil Doherty. They went to bed last night leading the rally after a fantastic dice with Darren Gass that ended when Gass crashed his Subaru on the penultimate Saturday stage. What looked like it would be a relatively easy cruise for Garry to take his 2nd Donegal win has turned on its head as Garry has been relegated from 1st to 5th due to a road penalty. Penalties are never set in stone of course and are open to appeal. So perhaps it is not absolutely clear cut. However, it would appear at the minute that Garry is going to have to shrug off the wet weather and go and drive as hard as he can over today`s 6 classic stages. He will be trying as hard as ever now to get as close to the top of the leaderboard as he can as much for Tarmac Championship points as anything.
Looking outside the above leaderboards, Seamus Heron has battled back to 11th o/a and 3rd in Group N. Seamus had been up to 3rd but made a mess of a couple of stages yesterday morning and dropped back. Shane Maguire is 12th and 4th GpN. Rory Byrne in the new Modern Tyres Evo X has had a smooth run to 13th o/a and 5th GpN. Some class leaders include Gavin Kelly who is 14th and leads cl.1 in his Civic. Stewart Liddle is up to 16th o/a that makes his trip from Australia to rally his own Impreza pretty worthwhile. Ian Chadwick is 17th and leading cl.2 in his Skoda Fabia. This is all the more remarkable as Ian landed up from Cork and straight into the rally and did no recce at all.
In the National Rally Camillus Bradley has worked his way up to 11th. Camillus and his co driver Danny O`Neill are gradually finding their feet after their Mourne Rally accident. Kevin Bradley is leading cl.11R in his Escort. Colm McFall (Lancer) is leading cl.16. Darren Doherty/Dean O`Sullivan lead cl.20 in their Impreza. Willie Vance leads cl.15 and Hugh Martin Toye leads class 11. Randalstown car dealer John Mulholland leads class 9 in his Puma.
Finally for now this is the last year of the Topaz sponsorship of the Donegal Rally. The official merchandise agents C&M Embroidery are having a big sale today at the Mt. Errigal Hotel finish of all the Topaz Donegal Rally gear.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net *Follow RallyNews on Twitter @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
