Winning the Circuit of Ireland is always very special and although Eugene Donnelly won it 3 years ago he was just as delighted today as he was then. For co driver Paddy Toner it is his first Circuit victory and no finer man for the job. Once again Eugene Donnelly showed enormous talent on the stages and of course his little Skoda Fabia, the budget package of the world rally car machinery, behaved impeccably over the jumps and bumps of this very tough rally. The car was prepared by Derek McGeehan and the performance of the whole team this weekend is as much a credit to McGeehan Motorsport as it is to the driver and co-driver. Eugene won the Galway International this year so his points tally in the Tarmac championship is now 32 as against Gareth McHale’s 22 and Eamonn Boland’s 12. Who is to say that Eugene is not on his way to his 5th Tarmac title?
Current Tarmac champion Eamonn Boland made a cautious start to the rally and in a way was always playing catch-up and a repeat of last year’s Circuit victory seemed to be just outside his grasp after the first few stages. Gareth MacHale put up a brilliant show this weekend and if his Focus hadn’t had transmission troubles who knows what the result might have been. However, that’s rallying. Other drivers who were out of luck included Peadar Hurson who was 2nd finishing Saturday but had to pull out because of an oil leak. Peadar had led the rally after stage 3. Derek McGarrity led after stage 2 and he retired following a puncture on the final Saturday stage.
Hard luck stories today included: Stanley Ballantine was forced to retire at the end of the penultimate stage when he was lying 10th. His Lancer suffered a blown engine. Craig Breen crashed out on the Slieve Gullion stage when he was heading for a significant result in his Fiesta.
When Eugene brought his Skoda into final service, this is his 16th Tarmac c/ship win, he said. “The rally was a big challenge, the highlight for me was Hamilton’s Folly and I knew then we had the pace to be fit for the boys. Derek McGeehan has put a lot of work into the car – some of the parts for the car ended up in Sweden this week so that was a scare. Derek is brilliant at the set up. I hadn’t made up my mind about the Lakes but it looks like we’ll go and have another crack at the Tarmac”. Gareth MacHale said. “I need a bit of luck on my side. My priority this year is 5 rounds of the IRC starting with Ypres in June in the Opel”. Last year’s Circuit winner Eamonn Boland said. “Tough stages, great rally”. When we congratulated Tim McNulty going into service he joked. “Most people get congratulated for winning, I get congratulated for finishing!”
In the National A Rally Melvyn Evans & Sean Mullally have led from the start in their Subaru and with just 1 stage to go had 3m in hand over David Mann with current MSA Asphalt Champion David Kynaston 3rd in his Audi. In the National B Rally Kenny McKinstry and his co driver Noel Orr have also led from the start and they were 3m ahead of Wesley Patterson in his Escort with 1 stage to go. Denis Biggerstaff was 3rd: Neil McCance 4th: Manus Kelly 5th and John McGlaughlin 6th. Neil McCance was leading GpN and indeed was in line to take maximum points in the Evo Challenge, having also scored top points yesterday. Alan Carmichael won GpN on the International Rally, partly thanks to Willie Mavitty who lent him some suspension parts. Rory Byrne was delighted to take 2nd GpN in the Modern Tyres Lancer on his home patch.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net Our thanks to everyone who helped and supported the RallyNews service this weekend especially all our sponsors plus Michael & Zoe Patterson: Dougie Hughes: Bernard & Ro Lee (North East Rally Services and Declan Gannon & Aidan Harper.
