Donagh Kelly was fastest through stage 4 to increase his lead over Sam Moffett to 26s. Kelly seemed very unruffled here at service and opted to switch to a harder compound Pirelli as the weather here in West Cork continues to improve and temperatures are rising all the time. Sam Moffett had a small spin in stage 3 and an overshoot at a hairpin left in stage 4, but otherwise no problems. Daragh O`Riordan in 3rd is making a few adjustments to the set up of his Fiesta WRC but considering he has not been in a rally car for 6 months the Midleton man is really going well. Josh Moffett made a real charge through stage 3, less than 3s slower than Donagh Kelly, but it all went a bit pear shaped in stage 4 for Josh as his Fiesta WRC indulged in two massive spins through the tapes.
Owen Murphy continues to crack on in his Lancer and has moved ahead of Melvyn Evans in the standings. Melvyn has crunched the rear corner of his Subaru and told us. `Just can`t get heat into the back tyres and the rear end is coming round under braking`. He is going to try a harder compound rear tyre for this loop.
We reported earlier that Tarmac Champion Declan Boyle had stopped on the opening stage when his Subaru would not run properly. It would appear that the mysterious fault has been found and it is down to a fuel pressure sensor problem. Declan is now running under Rally 2 and although he has never competed on the Ring stage before he was a stunning 8s faster than Donagh Kelly over the 14.4km classic test. Declan is just a few cars from the end of the classification because of the penalty involved with having to run in Rally 2, but he going to have a go through the afternoon stages to see how he gets on.
Also on an earlier RallyNews we reported on the Phil Collins/Diarmuid Falvey accident in stage 2. We have spoken to Diarmuid and he told us they are both OK and the broken telegraph pole is now anchored to a farmer`s tractor. Further stories include Declan Gallagher`s Toyota Starlet needs a little welding to the exhaust manifold. Stephen Wright has had a great run through stages 9 and 10 in his Fiesta R5 to consolidate his position. Jonny Greer`s Citroen R5 is still having a little turbo pop off valve trouble. Damien McCarthy has reportedly retired his Puma when it went off the road close to his own home. Vincent McSweeney was up as high as 11th in his Civic, he is still going well but has dropped a couple of places. Adrian Hetherington was 12th after SS4 and Wesley Patterson 13th. Wesley said his car is going well but he is struggling with the pace, and not as committed as he should be.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rasllynews.net *Follow RallyNews on Twitter & Facebook @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
