Long out on SS7

Website office (Wexford)

John Dier

Sunday 11th September

David Long has not come out of SS7 here at the website office, we believe that he has had an off on the last section of SS7. We had a bit of a gap between Stephen Murphy, who now leads by 1min 19sec, and the rest of the field allowing us time to talk briefly to the rally leader, who was happy with the first loop of stages this morning and just hopes that no unforseen mishaps will take away a probable seventh Wexford title.
The rest of the field is now coming past us at regular intervals wih some very warm looking crews as the stages are fine and dry, and very fast to boot in some places.
The battle for third between PJ McGrath and Gabriel Martin, which was for third place yesterday is now for second place. The 2sec gap that favoured martin yesterday has now swung the opposite way in favour of McGrath this morning, by the same margin. The leading two wheel drive car is in 4th place, that of David James. The Gorey man has a 6sec advantage over Liam Wall, who inturn has nearly 20sec advantage over Gwynndaff Evans.The next four cars rounding out the top ten are covered by the small margin of 30sec, so expect some battles there.
News of cars that should be up there in the mix is that Noel redmond is still going although not near as quick as he had hoped, back in 20th, and James M Stafford has picked up a massive 7mins in penalties, presumably as a legasy of the clutch problems from yesterday.
Top 10 after SS4(provisional)

1  Stephen Murphy  Michael Morrissey Carlow    Subaru S9         45'58"
2  PJ McGrath      Killian Duffy     Wexford   Subaru Impreza    47'17"   
3  Gabriel Martin  Donal Lennon      Wexford   Subaru Impreza    47'19" 
4  David James     Jim Crowe         Wexford   Ford Escort Mk 2  48'05"
5  Liam Wall       Bob Kelly         Wexford   Ford Escort Mk 2  48'11"
6  Gwyndaff Evans  Alan Davies       Wales     Ford Escort Mk 2  48'36"
7  John Nolan      John Smithwick    Carlow    Ford Escort Mk 2  48'42"
8  Mark Kennedy    Ian O'Leary       Wexford   Vauxhall Nova     48'46"
9  Wayne Evans     Sion Jones        Wales     Ford Escort MK 2  48'53"
10 Neil Williams   Eurig Davies      Cardigan  Ford Escort RS    49'05"

JD