David Kelly sets the fastest time over Garrygort in Donegal International Rally

Going into Service after Garrygort, Matt Edwards and David Moynihan, in their Ford Fiesta Rally 2, remain in the lead at the Donegal Rally despite a scare.

David Kelly and Dean O’Sullivan in their Volkswagon Polo set the quickest time there of 4 minutes 56 seconds - a second quicker than the overall leaders. 

Edwards survived a spin very early on in the stage so he’ll be content enough with where he’s at. 

Cathal McCourt and Brian Hoy, Ford Fiesta, also just about remained in the rally after their own fright.

Meirion Evans and Ger Conway (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) were third quickest at 4 minutes 58 seconds, meaning just two seconds split the top three on that stage. 

The fourth fastest time was set by the reigning champions Callum Devine and Naoel O’Sullivan (Skoda Fabia Rally 2) at 4 minutes 49 seconds with Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes (Citroen C3 Rally2) at 5 minutes 0.8 seconds. 

Speaking about the blistering pace he set, Kelly told DonegalLive: “We’d an overshoot on stage one, costing us valuable seconds. But we upped things and got back a bit of time. I didn’t think it was as fast as it turned out to be so we’re really happy. 

“We’ll go out on a hard tyre now in the afternoon and hope there’s no rain. It would be great to build on this now”. 

In the national rally, Kevin Gallagher and Ryan Moore were two seconds quicker in their  Darrian T90 GTR than rival Declan Gallagher in the Toyota Starlet. 

Edwards is now 14.4 seconds ahead of Devine and O’Sullivan in the standings while in the two-wheel drive battle, Kevin Gallagher is 21.6 seconds ahead of Declan Gallagher. 

Knockalla 

Edwards and Moynihan had again exited the blocks quickest at the outset of Saturday morning. 

The pair were fastest over Knockalla to extend the gap over Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan by half a second - meaning a 12-second difference existed there at that stage. 

McCourt and Hoy remained in third at that point with Evans and Conway leapfrogging Moffett and Hayes into fourth.

In the modified section after that initial run, Gallagher put local knowledge to good use as he set a time of 10:18.9.

Ardara’s Declan Gallagher was ten seconds off that pace at that point while third-placed Gary McPhillips and Paul Sheridan in their Ford Escort Mk2  were back in third.