James wins Wexford as Donnelly is tops in Mourne
Gorey’s David James (Ford Escort) has finally won a rally in Wexford.
Having In recent times, he has been denied victory on no fewer than three occasions, but he finally came through in top spot today – winning the Fethard on Sea based event by 23 seconds.
James led from the start, initially, another local driver, Liam Wall (Ford Escort) was his closest challenger, however, a blown engine on the second run ended his challenge.
That allowed Carlow’s, John Nolan into second, but he had to yield to Tipperary’s, David Percy (Ford Escort), who came through to clinch the runner-up slot behind James. Nolan was third.
In the Formula Karting Mourne Rally, there was a start to finish victory for Eugene Donnelly (Toyota Celica).
The Northern Ireland driver finished almost half a minute ahead of the Subaru WRC of Derek McGarrity, who edged out the Escort Cosworth of David Armstrong for second spot.
McGarrity was well down the leader board after his Subaru developed powered steering problems. He fought back to claim second and enough points to lead the Northern Ireland Rally Championship.
Colin McRae (Ford Focus) will begin tomorrow’s final leg of the Acropolis Rally with a 32.6 second leading margin over fellow British driver, Richard Burns (Peugeot). Marcus Gronholm (Peugeot) and Carlos Sainz (Ford) are third and fourth respectively.
