O’Sullivan leads Wexford rally

Cork-born driver, Donie O’Sullivan and his Killarney co-driver, Paul Nagle (Ford Focus WRC) leads the Crosbie Cedars Hotel Wexford Rally by some 20 seconds after the opening two stages.

O’Sullivan, who has been out of tarmac rallying since the Rally of the Lakes, was quickest on the opening stage – nine seconds ahead of the Escort Cosworth of Richie Curran from Mel Evans (Subaru) and top seed, Stephen Murphy (Subaru).

Murphy, a five time winner of this rally, moved into second on the second test while Curran is only a second adrift in third. The top six also includes Noel Redmond, Evans and John Price.

Times after S.S. 2:

D. O’Sullivan (Ford Focus) 17m. 47s.

S. Murphy (Subaru WRC) 18m. 07s.

R. Curran (escort Cosworth) 18m. 08s.

N. Redmond (Subaru WRC) 18m. 18s.

M. Evans (Subaru WRC) 18m. 19s.

J. Price (metro 6R4) 18m. 51s.

Meanwhile, in Spa-Francorchamps, the penultimate double header in the British Formula 3 Championship, Portadown’s, Adam Carroll will line up on the second row of the grid for this afternoon’s race.

Nelson Piquet Junior, who leads the series and needs only four more points than James Rossiter to claim the title, has claimed pole. The Brazilian topped the time sheets for most of the 45 minute session before he traded times with Carroll in the closing few minutes.

In the Scholarship Class, Ireland’s Ronayne O’Mahony has claimed his best ever position, he was second quickest behind Ryan Lewis.

Championship Class:

1 Nelson Piquet Jr Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 2m15.216s

2 Nicolas Lapierre Dallara F304 Opel-Spiess 2m15.533s

3 Adam Carroll Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 2m15.555s

4 Clivio Piccione Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 2m16.140s

5 Danny Watts Lola-Dome F106-4 Mugen-Honda 2m16.186s

6 Fairuz Fauzy Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 2m16.315s

Scholarship Class:

1 Ryan Lewis Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 2m19.469s

2 Ronayne O’Mahony Dallara F301 Opel-Spiess 2m19.593s

3 Vasilije Calasan Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 2m19.954s