Donnelly and Kiely win in Armagh
Derry driver, Eugene Donnelly and his Sligo co-driver, Paul Kiely in their Toyota Corolla delivered a double victory in Armagh.
First, a one minute and 3.6 second win in the Ulster Rally that secured the Pirelli Irish Tarmac Championship, their third in succession. Eamonn Boland in a Ford Focus took second and Gary Jennings on his debut in a Subaru WRC finished a fine third a minute and 29.4 seconds further adrift.
This morning, Peadar Hurson trimmed Donnelly’s lead to 8.8 seconds on the opening stage but his bid was derailed on the next stage when he aquaplaned his Subaru WRC, his principal concern was a damaged radiator, fortunately he was able to continue unabated.
Donnelly took no chances and built up a lead of 33.4 over Hurson with Eamonn Boland third.
In the wet and slippery conditions, Donnelly continued to control proceedings, however, he punctured on Stage 12 and lost time to Hurson, who narrowed the margin between them to 14.7 seconds. But the challenge was over within a stage as Hurson clipped a rock, burst a wheel and retired.
Donnelly coasted to victory from Boland and Jennings with Gareth Jones surviving two punctures to claim fourth.
Gwyndaf Evans in a Mitsubishi took the top points in the British rally Championship followed by mark Higgins and Rory Galligan.
Colm Murphy was the highest placed Group driver in the Irish tarmac series. Kris Meeke in his Citroen C2 lost over four minutes and eventually finished 12th. and Emma McKinstry was 16th.
With a title every season since 2002, Eugene Donnelly – joint Tarmac champion in 2004 with Derek McGarrity, is again, just like last season, the top driver in Irish rallying.
1. E. Donnelly/P. Kiely (Toyota Corolla WRC) 2h. 01m. 27.6s.
2. E. Boland/F. Regan (Ford Focus WRC) 2h. 02m. 31.2s.
3. G. Jennings/E. Sherry (Subaru WRC) 2h. 04m. 00.6s.
4. G. Jones/D. Moynihan (Subaru WRC) 2h. 04m. 47.1s.
5. G. Evans/H. Lewis (Mitsubishi) 2h. 05m. 24.1s.
6. M. Higgins/R. Kennedy (Subaru) 2h. 06m. 19.9s.
7. R. Galligan/G. Shinnors (Mitsubishi) 2h. 07m. 03.5s.
