UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 16 (last stage)

1^st (3) Melvyn Evans/Alun Davies (Escort WRC) 1.59.11

2^nd (18) Steve Fleck/Mark Aspinall (Subaru Impreza) 1.59.49

3^rd (6) Jim Harrison/Harvey Bell (Subaru Imp.WRC) 2.01.28

4^th (1) John Price/Caroline Price (6R4) 2.02.37

5^th (8) Tommy Graham/Sean Mullally (Subaru Imp.WRC) 2.03.46

6^th (14) JJ Fleming/Robbie Ward (Subaru Imp.WRC) 2.04.05

7^th (20) Phil Collins/Howard Davies (Escort) 2.04.47

8^th (46) Mark Morgan/Tony Fisher (Lancer N) 2.06.10

9^th (19) Derek Smith/Daragh Cafferky (Escort) 2.06.13

10^th (37) Barry Coleman/Alan Russell (Impreza) 2.07.16

Just outside the leaderboard we have Andrew Haddon in 11^th: Peter Lloyd 12^th with John Cope and Kieran O’Neill due to come in 13^th and 14^th places if they make it through the last stage.

Melvyn Evans, co driven by Alun Davies in their Escort WRC produced a dominant start to finish winning performance here in West Cork. Melvyn, a 37 year old garage proprietor from South Wales, commented when he came off the 16^th and final stage "It’s always nice to win, but it’s my first time here in Ireland and it is absolutely brilliant. I will definitely be back for more." Steve Fleck tried hard to usurp Evans but although he came close a couple of times, couldn’t quite manage it, and then a slow time through the Rosscarbery stage made the task pretty impossible. Steve said "I’ve had about 20 second places, but never won anything. I’m not too depressed though, we had a good run and this is the first car that I’ve had 100 per cent confidence in. This has been a fabulous rally, it’s blooming good to be back here rallying in Ireland". Third placed Jim Harrison told us "I’m not really overjoyed with my own performance, but it is hard to judge how good or how bad it was. It was a reasonable result". Jim’s co driver Harvey Bell remarked "It was good to get the last stage over – in ’98 we had a massive accident on the final stage here".

No.1 seed John Price had to be content with 4^th place, but it was still a good drive from the 2 times previous winner and he said "It was a quick pace, and although we had a good run it’s hard to keep up with the modern machinery in the Metro. We need a bit of suspension development but otherwise the car is really good". Top drives came from many people, not least Phil Collins in winning the "unofficial" race for best 2 wheel drive car. Derek Smith kept in touch with Collins over the 16 stages but couldn’t quite match his speed, a broken manifold over the last few stages not helping the Dubliner’s cause. Mark Morgan survived puncture problems to win the gpN category from Andrew Haddon.

Finally for now, many thanks to all who helped us over the weekend and well done to CoC Brian O’Connell and his hard working team for a super and efficient rally.

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