UNOFFICIAL NAT. L/BOARD AFTER STAGE 15
1st (20) Kevin Eves/William Lynch (Corolla) 2.04.03.1
2nd (47) Kevin Gallagher/Brendan McElhinney (Darrian) 2.07.45.5
3rd (18) Eugene Meegan/Sarah Whelan (BMW M1) 2.07.57.9
4th (27) Vincent McSweeney/Michael Kearney (Civic) 2.09.21.3
5th (60) Ray O’Sullivan/Gavin Sheehan (Escort) 2.10.25.9
6th (29) John Bonner/Leon Jordan (Escort) 2.10.39.5
It was certainly a dramatic final afternoon on this 2017 40th Anniversary West Cork Rally with Robert Barrable and Stephen Wright retiring from the leaderboard. Also Sam Moffett lost several leaderboard places. No such worries for Donagh Kelly & Connor Foley in their Ford Focus WRC. They have scored their 4th West Cork Rally victory. When Donagh brought his Ford off the final stage, Rossmore, he took time out to tell us. ‘When the rally started yesterday morning Robert Barrable was just a second slower than us on the first stage. I thought to myself then – I am going to have a tough time with these guys. I think it was all very close from then on until the 2nd stage this morning when I was able to pull out a decent lead. It is fantastic to win this West Cork Rally for the 4th time and it is great as well to make a taste of history’. (This is the first occasion when anyone has won the rally 4 times). When Josh Moffett brought his Fiesta R5 to a halt at the finish of the last stage, the young Monaghan man said. ‘I did not expect this result. I tried to keep it clean this afternoon’. Alastair Fisher jumped from 5th to 3rd through all the dramas and the Co. Fermanagh man told us. ‘We had a good run this morning which put us back in the picture, and then we benefited from other people’s misfortunes. That’s rallying’.
Alastair and his co driver Gordon Noble retain the lead of the all important Clonakilty Blackpudding Tarmac Championship. They have 31 points: Sam Moffett has 26: Josh Moffett 25: Joe McGonigle 17 and Brendan Cumiskey 13.
Kevin Eves/William Lynch not only won the National Rally today, they extend their lead in the Tarmac C/ship to 29pts with Eugene Meegan 2nd on 21. Gary Kiernan is 3rd on 17 and Vivian Hamill 4th with 15pts.
Finally for now, we wish to extend our congratulations to Greg McCarthy and all the hard working Cork MC team who made this rally possible. Our thanks go as well to all the drivers and co drivers who helped us over weekend plus of course the sponsors of our RallyNews service.
BRIAN & LIZ & MICHAEL & ZOE PATTERSON www.rallynews.net *Follow RallyNews on Twitter & Facebook @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
