UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 17 – END OF LEG 3

1^st (3) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 2.35.21.0

2^nd (6) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 2.36.57.0

3^rd (5) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 2.36.59.0

4^th (8) Gareth Jones/David Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 2.39.13.8

5^th (4) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 2.40.36.0

6^th (19) Roy White/Stephen McAuley (Lancer N) 2.44.56.6

7^th (15) Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey (Impreza N) 2.45.16.8

8^th (21) James Cullen/Reba Graham (Lancer N) 2.45.21.7

9^th (23) John McGlaughlin/David McElroy (Lancer N) 2.45.55.1

10^th (11) Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 2.46.00.9

There were no major changes through the final stage. Austin MacHale was fastest, 3.5s up on Eamonn Boland but finished the rally still in 3^rd place 2s behind his fellow Focus WRC driver.  Eugene Donnelly and co driver Paul Kiely extend their lead in the Pirelli Tarmac Championship and even more than that their name goes down in the record books amongst the rally greats such is the significance of a Circuit of Ireland victor.

It seemed a simple enough task at the end for Eugene and Paul to get their Corolla down from the end of the 17^th stage at Malin to the finish control at Londonderry, but they were 8 minutes late, and all of a sudden it seemed their Circuit win might be in doubt. However, there was no problem, just a traffic jam at Moville and co driver Paul Kiely had phoned the organisers to explain and they said basically just do your best to get down, there will be no road penalties. Eugene commented at service while the mechanics washed his faithful Corolla. “I could only ever dream about a Circuit of Ireland win, it seemed away out there somewhere. I’m having to pinch myself that this is real.  Strangely it turned out easier than I  thought, the challenge didn’t come from the boys, Derek and Tim.  Fair play to Eamonn and Austin, they went hard. I was taking it easy today but I kept thinking it would be so easy to make a mistake, so then I pushed on a wee bit.  The car was absolutely brilliant. Now we will switch it back to the same settings as it had for Galway in preparation for Killarney. I’m looking forward to The Lakes, but it is less than 2 weeks away which presents its own problems”.  At that Eugene was under pressure to head on to the Guildhall finish ramp. 

Eamonn Boland and Austin MacHale had that great race towards the end, Eamonn confirmed in 2^nd place and Austin 3^rd.  Roy White/Stephen McAuley did well to win group N and finish 6^th overall. Colm Murphy/Ger Loughrey are 2^nd group N and 7^th overall in their Impreza. They are appealing a 30s road penalty which would reverse the positions between them and Roy White. Any news on that will come later tonight.

Finally for now very well done to all who finished this tough Circuit of Ireland and to all the hard working team who made it possible.

BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net

Our thanks to Andrew Kellitt: Ron & George from NERS: Davie & Isabel Hamilton: Dougie Hughes: Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd. Thanks also to all who helped and supported the RallyNews service.