RALLY NEWS NO.8 Mallow/Finish/Sunday 5pm

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 12 (last stage)

1st (1) Kevin Lynch/Francis Regan (Impreza WRC) 1.19.06.1
2nd (3) Pat Norris/Declan Tumilty (Impreza) 1.22.51.2
3rd (2) Kevin O'Kane/Martin Hanna (Impreza WRC) 1.23.06.0
4th (4) Dermot Kelly/Greg Shinnors (Escort WRC) 1.23.10.7
5th (10) Adrian McElvaney/Paul Goodman (Impreza) 1.23.55.1
6th (7) James Murphy/Con Mulcahy (Escort Cos) 1.24.11.3
7th (18) Brian Lawlor/Peter Kavanagh (Escort) 1.24.44.3
8th (26) Brendan Murphy/Patrick Condon (Impreza N) 1.24.45.5
9th (17) Pete Willoughby/Paul Nagle (Lancer N) 1.24.49.2
10th (25) John McGlaughlin/David McElroy (Lancer N) 1.25.02.2

Kevin Lynch and his co driver Francis Regan made no mistakes through the final Ballinabulla stage to set fastest time from amongst the leading competitors to win the rally by a convincing 3m45s. Provisionally the pair have also won the McAuley Trailers National Forest Championship even with the Killarney round still remaining. Pat Norris, co driven by Declan Tumilty, was able to stroke his Subaru through the last stage to take a solid 2nd place, while Kevin O'Kane really got the hammer down in a race with Dermot Kelly to take 3rd. O'Kane's Subaru had a gearbox change at the last service and he just scraped through on time. Kevin Lynch commented when he brought his Subaru into the Mallow finish. "A really good rally, exceptional stages. It was a very fast pace yesterday, we didn't have to go as hard today which was just as well given the problem with the car." In relation to the McAuley Trailers championship Lynch went on to say "I wouldn't say we had a point to prove, but we did it, and it worked out well. I have the Killarney round down in my calendar, so we'll see, but we are really thinking about the Rally GB now".

Pat Norris said. "A brilliant rally, we didn't have to push hard on that last stage, really enjoyed the whole thing". Kevin O'kane commented. "We really had to go for it".

In Group N 17 year old Brendan Murphy from Mallow surprised everyone with his speed. Brendan who runs a plant hire business said "I'm delighted with the result, my best yet, although I won the category on the Panaround Rally in Wales. I didn't feel any real pressure towards the end but I was worried about the car, the turbo boost was dropping and the car was lagging, but we made it".

Finally for now, well done to John Quill and his great team who did so much hard work to make this Cork Forestry Rally such a success and thanks to all who supported the RallyNews service.

BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net