Gareth MacHale and his co-driver Brian Murphy in their Focus WRC put on a massive late charge to take victory on last weekend's Orchard Motorsport Cork ‘20’ rally. They also clinched the Citroen Tarmac Championship title. Gareth celebrated his 30th birthday a couple of weeks ago, but winning the Tarmac Title and the rally was his best present by far. His last minute charge had the MacHale stamp all over it and was reminiscent of his father Austin’s first of five Tarmac Championship Title wins in Cork 25 years ago.

Tim McNulty led the rally by 37s going into the final loop and was under no pressure. When his Subaru hit a bank on the first stage after service, there seemed to be no real damage and Tim still had 13s of a lead with 2 stages remaining. However Gareth seized his chance and charged through those final two stages to win by 1.9s. It really was a remarkable turnaround.

Craig Breen/Gareth Roberts in their Fiesta S2000 set seven fastest times during the event, but 3rd was the best they could do at the finish. Craig did win GpN on the rally and was 2nd o/a in the Tarmac Championship.

Alastair Fisher drove well to take 4th o/a on the rally, his Lancer somewhat outgunned over the classic stages by the World Rally Cars, as well as Craig Breen’s Super 2000. Alastair did win GpN on the Tarmac Championship and he was 3rd o/a in the series.

Mervyn Wedlock (Escort) won the Modified Cup in the Tarmac series and Geoffrey Dolan (Sunbeam) was 2nd. Dolan finished a fine 3rd in the Modifieds in Cork, while Cootehill man Wedlock battled with a problematic differential for much of the weekend and did well to finish 5th. Ed O’Callaghan in his 2 litre Escort was fastest Modified throughout the weekend, but a 5 minute penalty for allegedly not stopping at an accident relegated him to 2nd behind Washington James (Darrian).

In overall terms this was a major rally, a tough but enjoyable one for the crews, the weather conditions, particularly on the Saturday, adding to the difficulty factor. Through it all Clerk of the Course Colman Hegarty and his wife Kathlyne never lost their cool and were extremely pleasant and good to deal with at all times. The amount of work that they, the Munster MC team and a whole lot of other people put in was huge and they all deserve a lot of credit.
An interested spectator in the Citroen service area on the Cork ‘20’ was Shane Buckley. Shane was with his father Tadgh. It was marvellous to see Shane out and about, considering the terrible injuries he sustained in the Donegal Rally accident. Shane has still a long way to go of course, and we wish him well for a continued and full recovery.

A broken driveshaft capped a fairly rotten rally week for Citroen C2R2 driver Marty McCormack. Marty and his co-driver David Moynihan travelled all the way to Strasbourg at the start of the week to commence their recce for Rally France. They didn’t manage to get signed up for the French event, so headed back to Ireland to compete in Cork. Marty had every chance of tying up the Irish Citroen Racing Trophy in Cork but his C2R2 Max broke a driveshaft on the final loop of stages when lying a couple of seconds ahead of Robert Barrable. In Citroen Championship terms, Marty could have afforded to finish 2nd and still would have taken the title. It wasn’t to be though. He got the car to the end of stage 13, but with a time loss of 4 minutes. He still had another two stages to do before service and then the finish, so he made the decision to retire from the rally. This left Robert Barrable and his co-driver Damien Connolly to cruise the final kilometres and take the Citroen win on the day, and for the Championship. On top of winning the UK Citroen series the weekend before in Yorkshire, it made for quite a week for Robert & Damien!

On last weekend’s Rally France Sebastien Loeb clinched his 60th World Championship win and also tied up his 7th World Rally title. It is a remarkable record, marking Loeb down as the most successful rally driver ever. Danny Sordo was 2nd on what was a difficult and slippy Rally France and Petter Solberg/Chris Patterson were 3rd to make it a Citroen top three. Jari-Matti Latvala was 4th and Mikko Hirvonen 5th in their respective Fords. Interestingly, Henning Solberg was 9th o/a and won the Super 2000 category driving a Fiesta. Petter Solberg was hampered for several stages with a small differential problem, but was able to set a few fastest times towards the end of the rally.

Also taking place last weekend was the Enniskillen Clubmans Rally, where Gary McElhinney/Darragh Kelly in their Escort scored victory. Harold Brown/Bartley Downey in their Astra were just 3s back in 2nd and Shane McGirr/Daire Maguire (Starlet) were 3rd. There were just over 30 entries in the rally, although by all accounts the 12 stage event ran well.

The Donegal Harvest Rally this weekend has all the appearance of being a brilliant rally. Previous winner Paul Harris is now driving his brother Gavin’s GpN Impreza, running with the No.22 on the car, which will add to the spice of the GpN battle. NI GpN Champion Donagh Kelly has a new car for the event, an ex ADR Evo 9, the car that Derek McGeehan has been running for Liam Egan. Despite the fact that Niall Maguire, Seamus Leonard and Gary Jennings are the top three seeds, all in World Rally Cars, there will be huge interest in the battle of the Mk2 Escorts. There are 7 Escorts in the top ten who are capable of winning, and indeed quite a few outside that as well, who will be sure to set a cracking pace. The Donegal club has received a huge entry which is quite remarkable in these straitened times.

Looking further ahead this year’s Kenmare Historic Rally will be the opening round of the 2011 Irish Historic Championship. The series will then run through to the 2011 Cork ‘20’. This will provide a seven round Championship – Kenmare, Galway, Circuit of Ireland, Killarney Rally of the Lakes, Donegal, Ulster and Cork ‘20’. Mini Cooper driver Ray Cunningham has won this year’s Historic Champion’s title and Aidan O’Connor the Classic title.

Outgoing Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly was performing weather and gravel note duties for Tim McNulty in Cork. Eugene has no immediate plans to return to top level competition but has agreed to drive a Nova on the 24th October Skibbereen Fastnet Rally. The co-driver’s place is being raffled off, the proceeds going to charity.

Wicklow’s Danny Barry was performing the weather and gravel crew role for Craig Breen in Cork and Danny told us his next competitive outing will be Rally Scotland. Apart from Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle appearing in Scotland driving the Peugeot UK Super 2000, Keith Cronin/Barry McNulty are also entered, in a Proton. It would appear that the closing date for entries has been extended for the Scottish round of the IRC, indication that entries may be a bit light. Kris Meeke’s deal to drive the new Mini next year was officially announced at the Paris Motor Show. Paul Nagle will continue to co-drive. Kris and Paul are off this week to the Costa Smeralda in the island of Sardinia. The pair will compete in their Peugeot 207 S2000 both as a warm up for Rally Scotland and also to try and clinch the Italian National Championship for Peugeot Italy.

Following a meeting last night (Tuesday) the GSMC Baltinglass rally has been cancelled.