MARTIN WALSH: Morrow leaves it late in Limerick

The West Limerick Forest Rally, the opening round of the Valvoline Irish Forest Rally Championship, ended with a dramatic final stage victory for County Down’s, Philip Morrow and co-driver, Johnny Hart.

Driving a Mitsubishi Evo IX, they overcame an 8.4 second deficit to edge out long time leaders, Michael O’Brien/Greg Shinnors (Ford Focus WRC) by 1.4 seconds. The Cork crew of Owen Murphy/James O’Brien (Mitsubishi) were 4.5 seconds behind in third.

O’Brien set the pace on the opening stage where Murphy was 0.4 of a second behind with Monaghan’s Vincent McAree (Mitsubishi) a second behind Murphy. It was similarly close on the second stage with O’Brien again quickest — on this occasion he was eighth tenths of a second faster than Murphy to lead by 1.2 seconds. Morrow, on his first outing in some two years and his first southern Irish forest event in a decade, slotted into third – 5.6 seconds off the lead.