THE 2016 MARTIN HOWLEY Memorial Bayview Hotel Harvest Stages Rally is taking place today in south-west Donegal – keep abreast of all the action here as it happens
SS6: Declan and Brian Boyle hold a 37 second lead on Garry Jennings and Rory Kennedy with two stages to go. Manus Kelly is a further 37.5 seconds behind them in third place.
In Group N, Aidan Wray has an 11.6 second lead on Shane Maguire after six stages.
In the overall standings, Damien Gallagher and Mac Walsh lost ground on stage 5 and have dropped down the leaderboard to seventh, having been as high as fourth at one point.
In the Junior Rally, Michael Boyle and Dermot McCafferty suffered disappointment as a result of an overshoot and their event is over.
SS4: Declan and Brian Boyle remain on course to make it three Harvest Stages Rally wins as they hold a 24.9 second lead over Garry Jennings and Rory Kennedy.
The Lettermacaward cousins, in their Ford Fiesta WRC, were the fastest crews on each of the first four dstages to have a good advantage at the midway point of an event that has seen huge crowds descend on south-west Donegal.
Donegal International Rally winner Manus Kelly, who has a new co-driver in the form of Gareth Doherty, is in third, some 51 seconds behind the Boyles. Kelly was said to have held back on one of the earlier stages beliving himself to have suffered a puncture.
Chris Armstrong is in fourth while Damien Gallagher and Mac Walsh are just 3.2 seconds behind Armstrong.
Aidan Wray is the leading Group N competitor at the half-way point.
On this week’s podcast, we spoke to Karl Reid, the Clerk of the Course, and a selection of local competitors who will be tackling the stages today.
Podcast #41 – All systems go for Martin Howley Memorial Harvest Stages Rally
Manus Kelly had the June of his dreams when he won the Joule Donegal International Rally and the Glenswilly man is in Killybegs aiming for Harvest glory.
Audio: Manus Kelly eager to get back into ‘heat of battle’ at Harvest Stages Rally
The event is the final round of the Triton Showers National Rally Championship, the Sligo Pallets Border Championship and the Donegal Commercials DMC Rally Championship.
Around 120km of stages (there will be four stages, each done twice) will be tackled by the crews and will include parts of stages running through the villages of Kilcar and Glencolmcille after Motorsport Ireland gave the green light.
Spectators will be able to view the rally stages live on a big screen in the Service area, another first for the Harvest.
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