Second overall in the John Mulholland Motors Ulster Rally overnight for Keith Cronin and Mike Galvin sees them on course to take maximum Tarmac Championship points as his closest rivals hit various kinds of trouble during the opening day. After six stages he holds a 24 second advantage over Jonny Greer & Kirsty Riddick with the two Citroen CS3s performing faultlessly throughout the day, and Greer has certainly been having his best performance of the season.
Alastair Fisher led early on, but a puncture and spin has dropped him back to fifth overall and third of the ITC registered crews almost 40 seconds behind Cronin. Sam Moffett got off to a cautious start but has moved to within 17 seconds of Fisher, while his brother Josh had a narrow escape on the first loop when he clipped a wall. Stephen Wright was an early retirement with mechanical problems.
Callum Devine again leads class two while David Guest is the leading championship registered Group N driver. Eugene Meegan is the fastest of the Modified Championship drivers ahead of John Bonner and Davy Armstrong. Andy Johnson in his Chevette is the quickest of the Historic crews to date. There are eight more stages taking place tomorrow with the action getting under way at 7:37am.