Laukkanen takes lead in Galway Rally

Finland’s, Tapio Laukkanen, on board a Subaru WRC, leads the First Choice Flooring Galway International Rally after the conclusion of today’s nine stages.

The major drama of this, the first round of the Pirelli Irish Tarmac Championship, occurred on the

eighth and penultimate stage of the day when Derek McGarrity, who had extracted a 12.6 second lead lost over 90 seconds when his Subaru WRC punctured and he dropped to fourth place.

That allowed Laukkanen, the former British Rally Champion, take the lead but he was coming under

increasing pressure from a hard charging Eugene Donnelly.

The reigning national champion was growing in confidence in his new Toyota Corolla WRC and with

fastest time on the ninth and final stage of the day, he is only 6.3 seconds behind leader, Laukkanen.

MacHale is third and still very much in contention, he’s 17 seconds behind Donnelly.

The unlucky McGarrity is fourth with the similar Subaru WRC’s of Eamonn Boland, Tim NcNulty and the Ford Focus WRC of Donie O’Sullivan completing the top seven.

In Group N, Tipperary’s, Roy White has set the pace throughout the day and has 10.6 seconds to spare over the similar Mitsubishi of James Foley with Aaron MacHale (Mitsubishi) some 25 seconds further adrift.

White’s advantage could have been more were it not for the fact that he slid off at a hairpin on stage eight and on the next stage, he overshot a junction.

The event concludes tomorrow with a further eight stages.