Donnelly wins Galway International Rally

Eugene Donnelly and his co-driver, Paul Kiely (Toyota Corolla WRC) have won the Galway International Rally by a margin of 35.4 seconds from Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy (Ford Focus WRC).

Leading by three seconds starting out today, Donnelly was reeled in by MacHale who led by some six seconds at the end of S.S. 10 where Derek McGarrity moved up to third at the expense of Peadar Hurson who spun his Subaru.

Donnelly trimmed the MacHale’s advantage to two seconds on the next stage but S.S. 13 transpired to be an unlucky stage for leader, MacHale.

He spun and lost almost 30 seconds and Donnelly arrived back to the Ballinasloe service with a lead of 29.2 seconds. The expression on MacHale’s face told it all - the battle was over.

Donnelly went to take victory and make up for last year when he was pipped by a mere seven tenths of a second by Finland’s Tapio Laukkanen.

MacHale was almost two minutes ahead of third placed Derek McGarrity who replaced the clutch of his Skoda Fabia at the penultimate service halt.

Peadar Hurson finished fourth and was followed by Eamonn Boland and Tim McNulty – all in Subaru WRC’s.

Gareth MacHale on his first International outing in a WR car brought his Toyota Corolla home in seventh spot.

The Group N category was dominated by Limerick’s, Colm Murphy, his Subaru was well clear of the Mitsubishi of Garry Jennings and Seamus Leonard, both in Mitsubishi’s. Today’s retirements included Jonny Milner, Kevin lynch and Denis Cronin.

1. E. Donnelly/P. Kiely (Toyota Corolla WRC) 2h. 16m. 52.1s.

2. A. MacHale/B. Murphy (Ford Focus WRC) 2h. 17m. 27.5s.

3. D. McGarrity/D. O'Gorman (Skoda Fabia WRC) 2h. 19m. 22.9s.

4. P. Hurson/G. Patterson (Subaru WRC) 2h. 20m. 25.5.

5. E. Boland/F. Regan (Subaru WRC) 2h. 20m. 59.6s.

6. T. NcNulty/F. E. O'Donnell (Subaru WRC) 2h. 21m. 26.5s.

7. G. MacHale/P. Nagle (Toyota Corolla WRC) 2h. 22m. 33.3s.

8. C. Murphy/G. Loughrey (Subaru) 2h. 25m. 33.4s.

9. G. Jennings/J. O'Brien (Mitsubishi) 2h. 26m. 40.0s.

10.S. Leonard/G. McVeigh (Mitsubishi) 2h. 27m. 04.7s.

National Section:

1. J. Cullen/R. Graham (Porsche GT3) 2h. 32m. 35.4s.

2. P. Gallagher/K. Reid (Toyota Corolla) 2h. 33m. 20.0s.

3. J. Reddington/G. Hannigan (Escort) 2h. 37m. 47.1s.

Historics:

1. A. Kermode/M. Beckett (Porsche 911) 2h. 08m. 42.2s.

2. F. Cunningham/R. Forde (Mini Cooper S) 2h. 09m. 09.0s.

3. M. Johnston/R. Hyland (Aiustin Mini Cooper) 2h. 09m. 46.5s.