Eamonn Boland and his co driver Damien Morrissey resisted a lot pressure from Gareth MacHale/Brian Murphy through this afternoon’s stages and once again Eamonn proved more than equal to the task and has won this Cork 20 International Rally by just over 15s from Gareth. Eamonn Boland’s new Dom Buckley & Prodrive prepared Subaru was fantastic throughout the rally and this winning performance from the whole team put a fine conclusion to their winning Global Group Tarmac Championship season. Gareth MacHale was a little bit ambitious in his tyre choice at times over the weekend but Gareth and his Ford Focus WRC put on a tremendous show and kept Eamonn on his toes right to the final stage. Aaron MacHale/Killian Duffy brought their Focus WRC into 3rd place, Aaron really enjoying the fast stages here in Cork.
Niall McShea/Marshall Clarke did a brilliant job in the new Prodrive Impreza N14 to win group N from Damien Tourish with Kevin Kelleher 3rd in the category and Alan 4th. Kevin & his brother Martin will become the 2008 Group N Tarmac Champions on the strength of this result. Provisionally we also make the Clonakilty brothers 3rd overall in the championship with 50 points. Gareth MacHale will 2nd o/a on 52 and Eamonn Boland 104.5. Kevin Kelleher commented. “It has been a long hard year in the Tarmac Championship!”
We were honoured during the rally to have Austin MacHale & Dermot O’Gorman “OO”ing in the new Opel Corsa OPC S2000. This is going to be one of the cars of the future in rallying and it is a great act of faith by Austin MacHale to invest in this future technology. The car looked and sounded great on the stages.
Winner Eamonn Boland commented here at the Radisson Hotel finish. “The stages were very good. I dropped the ball a bit after service today but pulled it back. The car virtually never missed a beat apart from the small thing with first gear. It has been a fantastic season, plenty weren’t, that’s the way it goes”. Gareth MacHale said. “We tried hard all weekend, Eamonn drove well and it must be some sort of a record to score 5 Tarmac wins”. Group N winner Niall McShea told us. “Really enjoyed the whole rally, the car was consistently good and the small adjustments made it better. I knocked off some of the rust off myself. Many thanks to all who helped us including Dermot Hanafin of MIS and Prodrive”.
Integral to the rally are several championships including the Mitsubishi Evo Challenge which has been won by Brendan Cumiskey/Conor Foley. Alastair Fisher/Barry McNulty were fastest of the Irish Fiesta Sporting Trophy contenders, but it looks as if, by the strength of his 2nd place today, Elfyn Evans/Gareth Roberts will take the Fiesta title. Alastair had some handling problems today with his Fiesta but was able to pull a small bit of time back over the final 2 stages. Richard Hall/Sam McMullan won the Historic section from Denis & Dan Moynihan 2nd in their similar Escort.
Finally for now our thanks to all who helped and supported the Rally News service. Congratulations to new Clerk of the Course Colman Hegarty and his wife Kathlyne, plus all their hard working team, who laid on a very successful and enjoyable rally. Our thanks also to Dougie Hughes: Angus Sealy (results) and Barry Meeke (stagetimes.com).
