The pace is set to be electric over the final seven tests in the Cork 20 International Rally.
Merion Evans and Jonathan Jackson go into Sunday’s final loop with just 6.8 seconds to spare over
Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan.
The Welsh Volkswagen Polo RC2 crew are chasing their second win of the year – after Galway in February.
Devine and O’Sullivan are looking for a fourth win in a row and , at least, get one hand on the championship trophy.
Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes are just 4.2 seconds behind and will need to overhaul Devine and potentially Evans to keep their title bid intact.
Kerry co-driver Noel O’Sullivan said: “Look what happened last year, it all kicked off on Sunday and I am expecting the same this time.”
Ciara Grifin is the next best placed Kerry competitor. She is in 24th place overall alongside Tomas O’Rourke in their Mitsubishi Lancer E9.
Mark O’Leary and Andrew Cronin are second in class 11F in their Toyota Starlet while Fossa’s Sam Leech and his Cork co-driver Barry Attridge lead class 10 in their Opel Corsa.
They admitted to climbing a few banks and catching cars during the Saturday.
Amy Burke and co-driver Emel McNamara are second in Class 11 R in their Ford Fiesta, a few wrong tyre choices resulted in a few spins earlier on Saturday morning.
Several crews have to rely on SuperRally rules to get to the finish.
Cold tyres meant Tom Randles was off the road on the first corner of the first stage but his engineer, Cathal Browne, had him back out later in the day.
John Hickey and his new co-driver for this event Niall Myers were stopped at the end of stage 3 but are back out again after effecting repairs to their Fubaru Escort RS 4×4
Co-driver Sean Nolan and Shane Casey had turbo issues in their Ford Fiesta but also have them repaired in time for Sunday’s action.
The first stage, Mullentaura gets underway at 1010 on Sunday – there are plenty of rally programmes for sale in Rathcormack – get out and support the rally.
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