Overnight leader Declan Boyle was first on the road this morning for the Black Road stage, followed by Garry Jennings and then Eugene Donnelly. Unfortunately Eugene crashed the Mini WRC after a Turn Squre Left towards the end of the stage. He got the car on to the grass and it all went wrong resulting in a fairly big accident. The main thing is that Eugene and co driver Paul Kiely are reportedly unhurt. The Mini WRC blocked the stage so the following drivers had to stop and they will receive a `notional` time. This means that the top National drivers did not complete the stage either, so the overnight classification for the top cars will be unchanged. That means Declan Gallagher leads by almost 30s from Wesley Patterson with Pat Kelly 3rd, Ed Murphy 4th, Neil Pierce 5th and Tom Flaherty 6th.
Rally leader Declan Boyle did have a clear run and his Subaru coolant pressurisation problem seemed to have settled itself and he had no problem in the stage. Despite having all sorts of intercom problems Garry Jennings was just under 3s faster than Boyle to close the gap to 0.7s. Garry received some physiotherapy treatment last night in the Clayton Hotel. Former top driver Pat Groome was staying in the hotel and his wife Regina is a physiotherapist. She gave Garry some treatment and it seems to have had a good effect.
In the Historic Rally Ray Cunningham/Adrian Cusack in their Mini Cooper S led by 30s from Ross Forde/Paul Horan (Escort). James Power/Declan Kelly were 3rd in their Escort. Fourth was John Reid/Enda Shiels in their Escort. Former Historic Champion Mervyn Johnston with Wendy Blackledge co-driving was 5th in his Mini Cooper. Top Porsche was Brendan & JP McAree. Frank Cunningham has retired his Porsche.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL (With thanks To zoe) www.rallynews.net *Follow RallyNews on Twitter @Pacenotes or @REal_RallyNews
