Donnelly extends advantage in Galway

Eugene Donnelly has extended his advantage over Niall Maguire to 40 seconds with three stages remaining in the Galway Summer Rally.

Out on the second loop of three stages in the rally, the eighth round of the Dunlop National Rally Championship, the fastest times were set by Maguire on SS4; Jim Harrison on SS5 and Donnelly on SS6.

Apart from a spongy brake pedal Donnelly had no real drama.

The only major retirement was that of Davy Armstrong, who failed to arrive at the second service at

Portumna.

Behind the duo, Adrian McElvaney is consolidating his third place – albeit nine seconds ahead of Patrick Elliott.

John Spain moves into fourth despite damaging the front of his Toyota Celica when he hit a wall on SS4.

Jim Harrison, the early leader, who lost over two minutes is moving rapidly up the leaderboard and he is into sixth place.

Elsewhere, Sean Gallagher (Escort WRC) and JJ Fleming (Subaru WRC) are next in a top ten that also includes Denis Cronin (BMW) and Anthony O’Halloran (Opel Manta) and Sean Lyons (Escort), who share 10th place.

1. E. Donnelly (Subaru WRC 47m. 03s.

2. N. Maguire (Subaru WRC) 47m. 43s.

3. A. McElvaney (Subaru WRC) 48m. 00s.

4. P. Elliott (Subaru WRC) 48m. 09s.

5. J. Spain (Toyota Celica) 48m. 58s.

6. J. Harrison (Subaru WRC) 49m. 05s.