RALLY NEWS No.10 - After final stage - Sunday @ 14:58:13
RALLY NEWS NO.10 Finish/Sunday
UNOFFICIAL LEADERBOARD AFTER FINAL STAGE Lough Allua
1st (1) Gareth MacHale/Brian Murphy (Focus WRC) 2.19.10.6
2nd (2) Tim McNulty/Paul Kiely (Impreza WRC) 2.19.12.5
3rd (6) Craig Breen/Gareth Roberts (Fiesta S2000) 2.20.23.8
4th (8) Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy (Lancer N) 2.22.55.0
5th (3) Darren Gass/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 2.26.33.9
6th (15) Sebastian Ling/Aled Rees (Lancer N) 2.27.28.1
7th (10) Owen Murphy/James O'Brien (Lancer N) 2.28.28.6
8th (4) Aaron MacHale/Eugene O'Donnell (Focus WRC) 2.30.35.7
9th (18) Robert Barrable/Damien Connolly (C2R2 Max) 2.31.48.9
10th (24) Desi Henry/John Rowan (C2R2 Max) 2.35.01.9
NATIONAL CATEGORY AFTER FINAL STAGE
1st (16) Washington James.Llinos Jones Davies (Darrian) 2.23.54.7
2nd (21) Ed O'Callaghan/Gerard Clancy (Escort) 2.35.57.5
3rd (36) Geoffrey Dolan/Conor Murphy (Sunbeam) 2.37.12.7
4th (26) Leonard Downey/Mark Murphy (Escort) 2.38.52.6
5th (28) Mervyn Wedlock/Damien McCabe (Escort) 2.39.25.7
Gareth MacHale and his co driver Brian Murphy fairly stormed through the final stages of this Orchard Motorsport backed Cork 20 International Rally to take victory. Gareth will bring his Focus WRC over the ramp here at the Silver Springs in Cork the winner by 1.9s from Tim McNulty/Paul Kiely in their Subaru. Craig Breen/Gareth Roberts are 3rd in their Fiesta S2000. Gareth MacHale who celebrated his 30th birthday a couple of weeks ago also becomes the new Tarmac Champion. When the cars left Macroom service with 3 stages to go Tim McNulty looked odds on favourite to take the rally win. Tim had 37s in hand over Gareth. However, McNulty’s Subaru collided with a hedge in stage 13, Kilnamatra, and dropped 23s. Following the collision Tim’s Subaru was not quite right and he dropped time through stages 14 and 15. Of course when Gareth MacHale smelt victory he really went for the jugular.
Another major upset amongst the leading competitors was that Marty McCormack’s Citroen C2R2 Max incurred a broken drive shaft and Marty was forced to retire 2 stages from the end. This handed the Irish Citroen Racing Trophy title to Robert Barrable/Damien Connolly. Robert & Damien also won the UK title last week. Alastair Fisher/Rory Kennedy finished 4th o/a today, 3rd overall in the Citroen Tarmac C/ship and they also win the GpN category in the c/ship. Craig Breen has won GpN here on the rally and has finished 2nd o/a in the Tarmac series. Darren Gass kept his 5th o/a despite damaging the rear of his Subaru in stage 13 and losing the boot lid and rear spoiler! There was a late change to the National category result when Ed O'Callaghan was penalised 5m for allegedly not stopping at an accident and this relegated Ed to 2nd.
Finally for now well done to Colman & Kathlyne Hegarty and all the Munster MC team for putting on such a super rally. Our thanks to all who helped and supported the RallyNews service.
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
