Donnelly wins Donegal Rally again

Derry driver Eugene Donnelly and co-driver Paul Kiely have won the Shell Donegal International Rally for the second year in succession.

Sun, 19 Jun, 2005 - 19:19

Derry driver Eugene Donnelly and co-driver Paul Kiely have won the Shell Donegal International Rally for the second year in succession.

Their Kingspan-backed Toyota Corolla finished 41.8 seconds ahead of the Subaru of Tim McNulty/Eugene O’Donnell with the Ford Focus of Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy a minute 49.2 seconds adrift in third.

Facing out on today’s six stages, Donnelly had a lead of 57 seconds. His drive was more about maintaining the correct levels of concentration and composure.

It didn’t matter that NcNulty had closed to within 41.3 seconds with three stages remaining.

Donnelly’s Toyota had some brake fade on today’s opening stage, but it failed to ruffle the joint Irish Tarmac champion.

Anyway, his closest rival, NcNulty had to watch second spot as Eamonn Boland was within striking distance.

Then, when the Meath driver collected a 15 second road penalty, the pendulum swung in favour of Boland who was quickest on the penultimate test to move ahead by a mere half a second.

Unfortunately, it all went wrong for Boland on Atlantic Drive, the final stage where his Subaru stopped with a fuel problem. McNulty’s second spot was secure and Austin MacHale inherited third.

Derek McGarrity, who set most of today’s fastest stage times, was fourth and the points garnered were enough to allow him retain the lead in the Pirelli Irish Tarmac championship, albeit by a point from Donnelly.

Kevin Barrett in a Subaru was fifth from Gareth Jones, both in Subaru WRC’s.

Steve Perez (Ford Focus) was seventh and Denis Biggerstaff (Subaru) took eighth spot.

The Group N category was won by Garry Jennings in a Mitsubishi – almost a minute ahead of Shaun Gallagher, also in a Mitsubishi, the duo completing the top ten.

E. Donnelly/P. Kiely (Toyota Corolla WRC) 2h. 25m. 08.5s.

T. McNulty/E. O’Donnell (Subaru WRC) 2h. 25m. 50.3s.

A. MacHale/B. Murphy (Ford Focus) 2h. 27m. 39.2s.

D. McGarrity/D. O’Gorman (Subaru WRC) 2h. 30m. 13.4s.

K. Barrett/B. Goodman (Subaru WRC) 2h. 32m. 46.6s.

G. Jones/P. Goodman (Subaru WRC) 2h. 33m. 31.7s.

S. Perez/N. Dashfield (Ford focus) 2h. 35m. 59.7s.

D. Biggerstaff/PS. Moriarty (Subaru WRC) 2h. 36m. 07.1s.

G. Jennings/R. Kennedy (Mitsubishi) 2h. 36m. 32.2s.

S. Gallagher/C. McGinty (Mitsubishi) 2h. 37m. 24.8s.

Pirelli Irish Championship standings:

D. McGarrity 43 points.