He suffered a second second deficit on Stage Nine with a time 5:48, compared to Jon Mercer's 5:47, reducing the Wexfordman's lead by one second.

This was a stage of many weathers, as the road at Barmoney was almost dry. But by Galbally, the drivers were experiencing heavy rain.

This made for interesting rallying conditions, especially with a lot of shiny tar in a lot of places.

Behind these two, Dave Armstrong posted a 5:52 and Steve Fleck posted a 5:54, causing Armstrong to gain a one second advantage over Fleck, leap-frogging him up to third.

David James has incurred a couple of niggly problems, plus a road penalty, which has kept him down in 16th.

Keep your eyes peeled for Jimmy Lambert, currently 23rd, who is scoring top ten stage finishes to make up for penalties incurred when his automator fell off yesterday.

Looking down the field, and Class 6 is being led by Howard Moore in a Honda Civic, but it's the second-placed car in that class that might raise interest.

It's another Civic, driven by one A McHale.

No, not Austin - it's his son, Aaron. It looks like the second generation of a famous rallying name may eventually emulate McHale Snr, who won this event three times in the early eighties.