Lynch wins summer rally

The battle for the Dunlop National Rally Championship is still a three-way tussle between Niall Maguire, Jim Harrison and Patrick Elliott.

The eighth round of the series, the Loughrea Plant Sales Galway Summer Rally, was won by Kevin Lynch/Francis Regan (Subaru Impreza WRC).

At the conclusion of the Portumna based eight-stage event, they were 41 seconds ahead of the Subaru Impreza WRC of Daniel and Michael Doherty.

Championship contenders, Jim Harrison/Harvey Bell (Subaru Impreza WRC) and Patrick Elliott/David Moynihan (Subaru Impreza WRC) were third and fourth respectively.

Dunlop championship leaders, Niall Maguire/Paul McLaughlin, who debuted an S9 Subaru, finished fifth overall and in the context of the Dunlop Championship collected 14 points, their lead at the top of the ten round series has been cut to six points with Harrison and Bell in second spot, Elliott/Moynihan are a further four points in arrears.

On the final two stages, Lynch sealed his second Dunlop National Championship event victory of the season, Doherty held on to second with Harrison gaining 18 championship points to close to within six of the series leader, Niall Maguire.

George Cullen damaged the rear axle of his Subaru on the penultimate stage and slipped to eighth overall while Cathal Arthurs dropped to tenth following the addition of road penalties.

Elsewhere, John Spain lost a top ten place with turbo problems on board his Toyota Celica.

In the race for the Patterson’s Pacenotes Group N award, the pendulum has swung very much in favour of Galway Group N winner, Willie Fannin, although James O‘Sullivan fashioned a fine recovery to net second place in the showroom category .

1. K. Lynch/F. Regan (Subaru Impreza WRC) 58m. 32s.

2. D. & M. Doherty (Subaru Impreza WRC) 59m. 13s.

3. J. Harrison/H. Bell (Subaru Impreza WRC) 59m. 25s.

4. P. Elliott/D. Moynihan (Subaru Impreza WRC) 59m. 39s.

5. N. Maguire/P. McLaughlin (Subaru Impreza WRC) 1h. 00m. 58s.

6. D. Cronin/H. O’Sullivan (Toyota Celica ST185) 1h. 02m. 07s.

7. K. Barrett/P. Goodman (Subaru Impreza WRC) 1h. 02m. 42s.

8. G. Cullen/D. Downey (Subaru Impreza WRC) 1h. 03m. 17s.

9. W. Fannin/B. Duggan (Subaru Impreza) 1h. 03m. 46s.

10. C. Arthurs/J. Kelly (Hyundai Accent WRC) 1h. 04m. 26s.

Dunlop National Rally Championship (Provisional positions after Round 8):

1. N. Maguire 112 points; 2. J. Harrison 106 points; 3. P. Elliott 102 points.