Maguire leads Sligo rally

Niall Maguire and co-driver, Paul McLaughlin have eked out a nine second lead over the Toyota Celica of Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely in the Sligo Rally, the seventh round of the Dunlop National Rally Championship.

Both recorded identical times on the stages on the Sligo/Leitrim border with Maguire commenting on the difficult nature of the second stage.

Behind the leading duo, David Armstrong (Escort Cosworth) is third albeit 44 seconds behind Donnelly.

Armstrong had no intercom system for the second stage and couldn’t hear the pace note calling of co-driver, Herbie Blackburn.

Armstrong’s closest rival in the Dunlop Championship, Sean Gallagher retired his Escort Cosworth.

Patrick Elliott (Subaru) lost time when he was off on SS2 and his Subaru has no active differential,

however, he remains in fourth place.

Seeded at No 20, James Gillen (Escort Cosworth) is in fifth place with Aaron McHale, leader of the Group N category, just two seconds in arrears.

Kenneth Mulvaney has regained the lead of the Ford Ka category - 13 seconds ahead of early leader, Gerry Keyes.

Leaderboard after SS6:

1 Niall Maguire/Paul McLaughlin (Subaru Impreza WRC) 50m. 15s.

2 Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Toyota Celica) 50m. 24s.

3 David Armstrong/Herbie Blackburn (Escort Cosworth) 52m. 15s.

4 Patrick Elliott/S. Moriarty (Subaru Impreza) 53m. 21s.

5 J. Gillen/V. Carrothers (escort Cosworth) 53m. 12s.

6 M. McKenna/J. Loughran (Peugeot 205) 54m. 46s

7 A. McHale/D. Connolly (Mitsubishi) 54m. 48s.