It is lunchtime in Umea – three stages complete – four more in the afternoon including a spectator special on the edge of the host town.
It has been a mixed day for the ten Motorsport Ireland licence holders at the event.
M Sport’s Craig Breen and Paul Nagle are out after getting wedged in a snowbank on stage two but they are hoping to re-join under Super Rally rules on Saturday. More on this as we get it.
Co-driver Aaron Johnston, alongside Takamoto Katsuta sit in seventh place overall in their Toyota Yaris.
Josh McErlean and James Fulton are 19th overall and lead the WRC 2 Junior class and are tenth in WRC2 overall.
“Very happy to have completed the first loop of stages and get some solid times under our belts. Second pass will be much different road conditions wise so need to drive with our heads,” McErlean in a social media post.
Codriver Brian Hoy (Motorsport Ireland) and Jon Armstrong (Motorsport UK) are in second place in the WRC3 Junior Rally in their Ford Fiesta.
Finnish rising star Lauri Joona leads the category and has only 5.4 seconds to spare over Armstong.
William Creighton and Liam Regan are just one place and 15 seconds off their fellow Ulster men in a similar car.
Eamonn Boland and MJ Morrisey suffered a crankshaft pulley failure on SS3 and hope to re-join under Super Rally Rules – more on that too when we get it.
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Kerry Motorsport News 