RALLY NEWS NO.12            Cork - Finish - Sunday 5.30

UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 14 (LAST STAGE)
1st (3) Eamonn Boland/Damian Morrissey (Impreza WRC) 1.55.32
2nd (1) Derek McGarrity/Dermot O'Gorman (Impreza WRC) 1.55.47
3rd  (2) Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Impreza WRC) 1.57.14
4th (11) Tim McNulty/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 1.57.32
5th (7) Donie O'Sullivan/Paul Nagle (Impreza WRC) 1.58.13 ****
6th (8) Melvyn Evans/Marc Jones (Impreza WRC) 1.58.40
7th (6) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Corolla WRC) 2.00.22
8th (12) Denis Cronin/Helen O'Sullivan (BMW M3) 2.01.14
9th (15) Tommy Graham/Bob Kelly (Impreza WRC) 2.01.30
10th (10) Maurice Gass/Andrew Cullen (Impreza WRC) 2.01.35
11th (17) Seamus Leonard/Paul McLaughlin (Impreza N) 2.01.52
12th (22) JJ Fleming/Jakes Kelly (Impreza WRC) 2.02.10
13th (18) Roy White/Greg Shinnors (Lancer N) 2.02.58
14th Barry Coleman 15th Guy Woodcock…..

He's done it at last…..Wexford man Eamonn Boland has won this Cork 20 International Rally. It is Eamonn's first victory in the Tarmac Championship. What promised to be a very close run affair through the last stage turned out to be a solid win for Eamonn as he turned up the wick, beat the bogey time for the stage by 1s with Derek McGarrity 6s slower.  Austin MacHale got his Impreza repaired at service to set a solid time through the last stage, and hold on to 3rd place ahead of Tim McNulty. It was a fantastic achievement for Eamonn Boland who was more than pleased when he reached the finish ramp in Cork. Derek McGarrity told us "We waited at the start of the final stage for quite a long time, the tyres were cold and about a mile in we came to a 4 right tightened, the car got completely backwards, and from then on I backed off".  Austin MacHale's problem at service before the final stage was the ring gear coming off the fly wheel, bursting through the bell housing and breaking the power steering. Austin's arms were more than sore getting the car into the finish. The mechanics did a brilliant job to keep it going. Boland now moves up to 2nd place in the Tarmac Championship behind McGarrity with MacHale 3rd.

***Donie O'Sullivan is shown above in 5th place, but the Bio-Clear car is running very late on the road and it is not yet clear as to how Donie stands on road penalties. 

Millview Fuels man Maurice Gass slid his Impreza off the road on the final stage, at a square left, dropped well over a minute and several places on the leaderboard, but at least survived. 

Roy White and co driver Greg Shinnors have won the prestigious Group N category in the Tarmac Championship with their FESP Lancer.  Seamus Leonard won Group N today in his Subaru, Roy White was 2nd, Aaron MacHale 3rd.

By dint of his 15th place Guy Woodcock wins class 7. Denis Cronin wins class 12 from John Moynihan. Still to be confirmed, 023 Tiles man James O'Sullivan has finished inside the top 20 and won class 11.

In the Ford Ireland Focus Championship part of the rally John Foley has won the day from David Delaney with Oliver Stanley 3rd. Colm Murphy was making a charge and crashed off the road on the last stage. The Focus championship goes to Oliver Stanley.  We are still waiting for times from the last stage for the Ford Kas, but Kenneth Mulvaney is looking good to take the title, on a tie decider, from Ian Chadwick.

Finally for now, congratulations to Hugh McPhillips & Frank O'Mahony and their team from Munster MC - a splendid event to round off the Tarmac Championship 2003.  Our thanks to all who have supported and helped with the RallyNews service particularly Noel Clark, Louise Condon, Padraig Reddington, Ciara Conlon and Martin Walsh.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON                    www.rallynews.net