Tim McNulty and his co driver David Moynihan have scored a great victory today on this OSI Killarney Rally of the Lakes, their Buckley Motorsport Subaru WRC finishing 36s ahead of the similar Impreza WRC of Eamonn Boland/MJ Morrissey. Aaron MacHale and his co driver Killian Duffy came through to 3rd o/a in their Focus WRC while Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy scored a very impressive 5th o/a and Group N victory in their Lancer. It was certainly a rally full of dramas with McNulty leading through the opening couple of stages then slid his Subaru into the undergrowth on stage 4. This left Tim in 5th position but he never stopped trying for the rest of the rally.
What really played in McNulty’s hands though was that both Gareth MacHale and Eugene Donnelly put their cars off the road on the Cod’s Head stage. Gareth was leading at the time and Donnelly was 3rd. This could have promoted Eamonn Boland into the lead but his Subaru suffered a puncture which allowed McNulty to surge into the lead and he made no mistakes over the last 5 stages. His Pirelli shod Subaru wasn’t quite as immaculate as it was at the start but a win is a win. It was back in 2006 that Tim McNulty last won the rally and he has had some difficult times since so it is good to see him back on course. Despite his retirement Eugene Donnelly still leads the Tarmac C/ship points table. Tim McNulty commented at the finish: “It is very sweet to win for the 2nd time. It was tough but then they all are at this level. I didn’t give up hope after the problems yesterday and maybe I deserved that bit of luck today. The car and the Pirelli tyres were 100 per cent.” Eamonn Boland said., “All the electronic read outs and the intercom went on the 2nd last stage”. That was the end of Eamonn’s challenge really. Aaron MacHale reported. “I eased right back on the last 3 stages and it was nearly harder to drive that way. This result keeps us in touch with the championship, it’s wide open”.
GpN winner Alan Ring was delighted to win his home rally and he said. “I concentrated on keeping it tidy towards the end”. Second in GpN Colm Murphy said. “We had a great run once I got my steering back. Fair play to young Alastair Fisher behind me, he’s the up and coming driver, the next generation. We had an overshoot in Ardgroom towards the end but that all adds to the experience”.
In the National Rally Wesley Patterson and his co driver Martin McGarrity have won by 2m35s from Fergus O’Meara/Liam Brennan with Gary Reidy/Diarmuid Falvey 3rd, all in Mk2 Escorts. Some of the class winners in the International Rally include Daragh O’Riordan/Sean McCarthy in their S1600 Clio following a copybook drive. Mark Donnelly/Paddy Robinson won class 3 in their Fiesta, a great recovery following an off road excursion on stage 4, which damaged their Fiesta suspension and cost a couple of minutes in time. Kyle Orr/Sean Duggan came through to 2nd in Cl.3 in their Fiesta another great recovery after a stage 1 puncture. Andrew Fanning has come into 2nd in class 6 in his Puma and Dermot Hanafin/Claire Mole are now 16th o/a in their GpN Impreza which was a fine result for Insurance man Hanafin who hasn’t competed on a rally for some years. Niall Donoghue/Shane Greene have won class 2 from Adrian Cannon/Jonathan Shovelin with Joe McGonigle/Kim Baker 3rd - all in Civics.
Finally for now our thanks to all who supported and helped with the RallyNews service. Well done to all the Killarney & District MC team plus the marshals from all over the country who have made this major event such a success.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
