Murphy wins Carlow rally

After a four year absence from competitive action, Carlow’s, Stephen Murphy and co-driver, Mickey Joe Morrissey in a Subaru WRC won the Seven Oaks Hotel/Dargan Tools Carlow Rally by over a minute from the Subaru of Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell with Patrick Elliott/David Moynihan, also in a Subaru, third.

After bogey times were applied for stages two and four, Murphy led at the halfway mark by 18 seconds.

Out on the final four stages, he dominated and set all four fastest times. His victory margin was a minute and one second in what was an untroubled run to victory.

Breen, who lost time on the third stage when his Subaru aquaplaned, took a deserved second with Patrick Elliott coming home third.

It transpired that this was his last outing with the S9 Subaru car in left hand drive, it will be in right hand mode for his home event in Cavan at the end of the month.

Tom Holton (Toyota Celica) squeezed out the Escort Cosworth of Richie Curran by the narrowest of margins in the race for fourth.

The Mk. 2 Challenge was won by Tom Randles, he was 37 seconds in front of Camillus Bradley.

David James was third in the category.

The rally was a counting round of the Ford Ka series with Daniel Barry finishing ahead of Brian O’Mahony (second) and Kieran Daly (third).

1. S. Murphy/M.J. Morrissey (Subaru WRC) 56m. 41s.

2. R. Breen/A. Purcell (Subaru) 57m. 40s.

3. P. Elliott/D. Moynihan (Subaru) 58m. 35s.

4. T. Holton/A. Cullen (Toyota Celica) 59m. 52s.

5. R. Curran/G. English (Escort Cosworth) 59m. 53s.

6. T. Randles/D. Lynch (Ford Escort) 1h. 00m. 17s.

7. C. Bradley/D. O'Neill (Ford Escort) 1h. 00m. 54s.

8. D. James/J. Crowe (Ford Escort) 1h. 01m. 06s.

9. J. McCarthy/J. O'Brien (Toyota Corolla WRC) 1h. 01m. 23s.

10.G. Quin/D. Brannigan (Mitsubishi) 1h. 01m. 25s.

For Ka:

1. D. Barry/B. Doran 1h. 08m. 39s.

2. B. O'Mahony/J. Higgins 1h. 09m. 14s.

3. K. Daly/G. Fahy 1h. 09m. 43s.

In Mondello Park, round four of the British GT Championship was won by Tim Sugden/Jonathan Cocker (Porsche), who also won on Saturday.

Tim Mullen was again the highest placed Irish driver, he partnered Chris Niarchos to fifth. Matt Griffin and his British team mate, Aaron Slight were 16th. – they debuted the Vauxhall Monaro and made improvements on the times set during Saturday’s third round.