Alastair Fisher and co-driver Rory Kennedy's fourth place finish on round three of the Citroen Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, the Killarney Rally of the Lakes, puts Alastair on top overall in the driver's championship, and this driving a Group N Production based Mitsubishi Evo 9! After the disappointment of a retirement on the previous weekend's Pirelli International Rally in England, Alastair put it all behind him, as he switched back to tarmac for the two day Killarney International. This event used some all time classic stages such as Molls Gap, and Caragh Lake.

Indeed Alastair's late Uncle Bertie won this classic event six times, with Rory Kennedy in the hot seat, and Alastair was doing the family name proud with some impressive early stage times. By stage two, he was fifth overall only behind four World Rally Cars (WRC), and after stage three Gortnagane 1, he had moved into third place overall, behind the WRC cars of Tim McNulty and Daragh O'Riordan.

Conditions were changing with localised rain showers making the stages greasy, and tyre choice was not easy. "The conditions were very mixed, but one thing I have to say about is that I was very happy with our tyre choices all weekend. We were on a nice pace on day one. We had a fastest overall time on stage 6, Gortnagane 2, and couple of second fastest times, which I was happy with."

Indeed the young Co.Tyrone based Team UK driver ended day one in third place overall, just 6.3 seconds behind Denis Cronin's WRC Subaru, with Aaron MacHale's WRC Focus 12 seconds in arrears. Day two started with the fast Shanera and sweeping Caragh Lake tests, and with conditions drying out, the more powerful cars were to have an advantage. "We were very content with our position, and not trying to catch Denis in front, as we were in a good position for championship points. We were swopping times all day with Aaron MacHale. Going into the second last stage he was two seconds behind us, but he got ahead of us by two seconds going into the last test. We decided to just keep at the same pace, when I damaged the left rear wheel. It was coming into a square right and the car stepped out of line under braking on gravel, and I had to flick it sideways to try and avoid going off. We still clipped the bank however and the damage was done."

It was a delay that cost third place, dropping to fourth at the finish behind Craig Breen in the Super 2000 Fiesta. "We lost 1 minute 20 seconds and really gifted Craig six points, but that's the way it goes." Nevertheless it's another excellent result, fourth overall, first Group N car home, and leading Ireland's premier rally series. "We had a good set up for the fast stages, the car ran faultlessly, we had no real moments except for the final stage, and now I'm looking forward to the next round of the British Championship the Jim Clark. I'm hoping that with the next three British rounds on tarmac that our Irish Tarmac campaign so far will help us."

A three week gap gives the team time to prepare for the trip to Scotland, and once again Alastair is sure to raise a few eyebrows as he continues his fast 2010 rallying season.