Maguire takes Monaghan Rally

On home ground, Niall Maguire and Paul McLaughlin (Subaru WRC) took a comfortable victory in the Hillgrove Hotel Monaghan Rally, the second round of the Dunlop National Rally Championship.

At the finish of the day’s nine stages, they were 53 seconds ahead of the similar Subaru WRC of Adrian McElvaney/Paul Goodman.

Throughout the day, the race for third was between the Subaru WRC of Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell and the Hyundai Accent WRC of Cathal Arthurs/James Kelly, with the latter gaining the advantage towards the finish.

The showroom honours were annexed by Willie Fannin/Richard Price (Subaru).

1. N. Maguire/P. McLaughlin (Subaru WRC) 1h. 15m. 54s.

2. A. McElvaney/P. Goodman (Subaru WRC) 1h. 16m. 47s.

3. C. Arthurs/J. Kelly (Hyundai) 1h. 17m. 06s.

4. R. Breen/A. Purcell (Subaru WRC) 1h. 17m. 10s.

5. S. Gallagher/F. Kenny (Escort Cosworth) 1h. 19m. 04s.

6. D. Armstrong/C. Kelly (Escort WRC) 1h. 19m. 06s.

7. K. Barrett/B. Goodman (Subaru WRC) 1h. 20m. 08s.

8. E. Keenan/S. Moriarty (Escort) 1h. 20m. 15s.

9. D. McNulty/K. Kilcoyne (Escort Cosworth) 1h. 20m. 27s.

10. M. Moffett/J. McKenna (Toyota Starlet) 1h. 20m. 28s.

In the Celtic Ross Hotel Single Stage Rally in West Cork, Dungarvan’s Tommy Kiely and co-driver Michael Cuddihy took a 23-second win over the Darrian of Glengarriff’s Willie Power/Adrian Deasy.

Millstreet’s, Tom Murphy (Escort) led initially, but suspension problems cost him time on the second run as Kiely took an eleven-second lead into the third stage.

At the beginning of the third and final run, Murphy was forced out and Kiely went on to win.

The top four was completed by the Escort of Willie and John Whitty and the Toyota Corolla of Tim O’Donovan/Sean Hayde.

1. T. Kiely/M. Cuddihy (Escort) 32m. 40s.

2. W. Power/A. Deasy (Darrian) 33m. 03s.

3. W. & J. Whitty (Escort) 34m. 02s.

4. T. O'Donovan/S. Hayde (Toyota) 34m. 02s.