Higgins/Gibson heading for Ulster Rally victory

Isle of Man driver, Mark Higgins and his Belfast co-driver, Michael Gibson in their Ford Focus World Rally Car have tightened their grip on the AnswerCall Direct Ulster Rally.

Starting out this morning, they had a 40 second advantage over the Toyota Corolla WRC of Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely, now, after Special Stage 16, that margin is two minutes and 30.7 seconds.

Donnelly lost over a minute when his Kingspan Toyota punctured on stage 14, the longest stage of the rally at almost 17 miles.

Nevertheless, he retains second from the Sanyo Ford Focus of Austin MacHale who is a minute and 42 seconds adrift.

Kevin Lynch was third at this morning’s re-start but he lost time with a puncture on stage 12 and has since retired his Subaru.

Meath’s, Tim McNulty is up to fourth in his Subaru in a top six that also features the Subaru of Eamonn Boland and the Ford Focus of Matthew Wilson.

In the Super 1600 category, Welsh driver, Gwyndaf Evans in a Ford Puma has taken over the lead from the Suzuki Ignis of Guy Wilks.

Elsewhere, in the top ten leader board, David Higgins is making a fine recovery in his Hyundai, he dropped to 36th yesterday with transmission trouble, now he’s ninth.

Group N leader, Dessie Keenan in a Mitsubishi completes the top ten.

Top seed, Derek McGarrity (Subaru WRC) is running under appeal, officially, his times are not being shown, if they were, he would occupy third.