RALLY NEWS NO.12 Killarney/Finish/Sunday 6.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 17 (final stage)
1st (4) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 2.13.39.6
2nd (1) Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Corolla WRC) 2.14.22.0
3rd (2) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 2.15.21.7
4th (14) Gareth Jones/David Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 2.15.35.9
5th (3) Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Focus WRC) 2.15.54.1
6th (16) Stephen Murphy/M Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 2.15.54.5
7th (8) Denis Cronin/Helen O'Sullivan (Impreza WRC) 2.18.06.5
8th (12) Aaron MacHale/Craig Parry (Focus WRC) 2.18.22.5
9th (27) Seamus Leonard/John McCafferty (Lancer N) 2.20.32.3
10th (9) Nigel Hicklin/Diarmuid Falvey (Impreza WRC) 2.21.35.5
11th (11) JJ Fleming/Robbie Ward (Focus WRC) 2.21.54.6
12th (25) Alan Ring/Brian Duggan (Impreza N) 2.22.03.8

Tim McNulty and his co driver Anthony Nestor powered their Pierse backed Subaru to the lead of this Killarney Rally of the Lakes on stage 3 Rock Chapel and never looked back. Eugene Donnelly & co driver Paul Kiely persevered through what was a relatively unhappy rally for them to take a splendid 2nd in their Corolla, while Derek McGarrity, co driven by Dermot O’Gorman, kept an upset stomach at bay today to take 3rd in his Subaru. When McNulty brought his Pirelli shod Impreza to a halt here at the Gleneagle Hotel he took time out to tell us. “We’re glad to get through those last few stages, always a worry and Eugene gave us a wake up call over the Molls Gap stage. I got my head together through Ballaghbeama and then through to the finish. As regards the Pirelli championship, I’m taking it round by round”.

Eugene Donnelly continues to lead the Pirelli championship and now provisionally has 42 points with Eamonn Boland on 31 and McNulty creeping up the order. Eugene commented at the finish. “At the end it was a good result for me, everything went well in the car. As you know the motivation wasn’t there after what happened before the start, but we got good points and that’s what it is all about. I’m delighted for Tim, he drove very well.” Third placed Derek McGarrity said. “I’m not really disappointed, I’m actually glad to get through the day. I was sick for most of the night”. Co driver Dermot O’Gorman then said. “We had it all planned, if Derek was going to be sick he had to aim it at my footwell and not his own so that the pedals and the electrics wouldn’t get messed up!”

Seamus Leonard won the Group N part of the rally, co driven this time by John McCafferty. Seamus said when he brought his Lancer into the finish. “Yes, we had a great run. I made one big mistake when I picked too hard a Pirelli tyre for the Ballaghbeama stage and the car was bouncing about under braking”. That mistake let Alan Ring set fastest time through Ballaghbeama and he said he was going that hard that even the helicopters moved out of the way he was taking the jumps so high! James Foley was 3rd GpN. Kevin O’Donoghue 4th: Roy White 5th.

Young Welshman Gareth Jones earned a lot of admiration for his drive this weekend to 4th place. Gareth beat several of the “bogey times” during the rally otherwise could have been credited with a fastest time. Stephen Murphy spun on the last stage and allowed Eamonn Boland to get past. We said earlier that Murphy wasn’t registered for the Pirelli championship, but in fact he is, so that last minute move up the leaderboard will earn an extra point for Boland. Last minute stories include: Denis Cronin’s Subaru getting a puncture before stage 5, the spare wheel was fitted with the wrong tyre, but he managed to set some good times anyway. JJ Fleming’s Focus had gearbox trouble towards the end. Phil Collins has won the Modified section in his Escort from Mark Courtney with Wesley Patterson 3rd.
In the Argentina World Rally Championship event Gareth MacHale finished 10th along with Killarney co driver Paul Nagle. Loeb won from Solberg. Nasser Al-Attiyah & Chris Patterson won the Production category which will increase their lead in the Production World championship.
Finally for now well done to Clerk of the Course Gary McCormack and all his team for laying on such a huge and successful rally. Thanks to Noreen Marshall for all her help and many thanks to all who supported and helped with the RallyNews service. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net