Boland best in Cork '20' International Rally
With their fifth victory of the season, Eamonn Boland and Damien Morrissey (Subaru WRC) have won the Murphy Construction/Weathermaster Cork '20' International Rally, the final round of the Global Group Irish Tarmac Championship.
They finished the 14-stage event with a 15.3 second winning margin over the Ford Focus of Gareth MacHale/Brian Murphy.
Aaron MacHale/Killian Duffy (Ford Focus WRC) were third.
The Group N category was won by Niall McShea/Marshall Clarke (Subaru).
Meanwhile, third in the same category was enough for Clonakilty’s, Kevin and Martin Kelleher (Mitsubishi) to win the Irish Tarmac Championship Group N award.
Boland set out on today’s final six stages with a 20 second lead over Gareth MacHale, with Aaron MacHale (Ford Focus) over two minutes further behind in third.
Gareth MacHale gained two seconds on the opening stage but Boland subsequently topped the time sheets through Stages 10 and 11 and carved out a 30 second lead with 3 stages remaining.
On Stage 12, Boland didn’t enjoy a good run and MacHale clawed back 11.1 seconds.
On the penultimate stage, MacHale was the quickest again and reduced the deficit to 13.6 seconds.
However, Boland was in no mood to relinquish a lead he held since the start yesterday and duly punched in the fastest time on the final stage to take victory by 15.3 seconds.
Gareth MacHale had to be content with second while Aaron MacHale was over 3 and a half minutes further behind in third.
Former Production world champion, Niall McShea in the N 14 Subaru, was a dominant winner of the Group N category, he was also fourth overall - ahead of Damien Tourish in a Mitsubishi and top local driver, Liam McCarthy (Toyota Corolla WRC).
The top ten was completed by Alan Ring (Mitsubishi), John McGlaughlin (Mitsubishi) and Guy Woodcock (Escort Maxi).
The only retirement from today’s starting top ten was that of Sean Flanagan, his Subaru suffered clutch failure on the day’s first stage.
1.E. Boland/D. Morrissey (Subaru WRC) 2h. 05m. 12.7s.
2. G. MacHale/B. Murphy (Ford Focus WRC) 2h. 05m. 28.0s.
3. A. MacHale/K. Duffy (Ford Focus WRC) 2h. 09m. 47.7s.
4. N. McShea/M. Clarke (Subaru) 2h. 12m. 55.9s.
5. D. Tourish/D. McAlaney (Mitsubishi) 2h. 14m. 50.1s.
6. L. McCarthy/K. Murphy (Toyota Corolla WRC) 2h. 15m. 34.3s.
7. K. Kelleher/M. Kelleher (Mitsubishi) 1h. 13m. 27s.2h. 16m. 03.5s
8. A Ring/A. Deasy (Mitsubishi) 2h. 16m. 04.6s.
9. J. McGlaughlin/S. McAuley (Mitsubishi) 2h. 17m. 17.0s.
10. G. Woodcock/D. Williams (Escort Maxi) 2h. 18m. 28.3s.
