Wilson leads Rally Ireland

Nineteen year old British driver Matthew Wilson in a Ford Focus is the overnight leader of the Sligo based Rally Ireland.

His Ford Focus heads the Ford Focus WRC of Wexford’s Eamonn Boland by 53.2 seconds with Derry driver, Kevin Lynch in a Subaru WRC occupying third – a further 5.3 seconds behind.

Boland led initially, he was quickest on S.S. 1, albeit by a fraction of a second as Wilson has no fewer than four brief excursions to the verges. Boland went 1.8 seconds ahead on the second test but Wilson, with a superb time through S.S. 3 went into a lead he retained over the remaining three stages.

Boland lost second spot briefly but regained the place on the final stage.

Third placed Lynch thought he’d punctured on S.S. 5 and it seemed to break his concentration.

The top three have moved well clear of the chasing pack that is led by Glen Allen in a Toyota Corolla WRC, who had brake problems on the opening stage.

Fourth placed, Gareth MacHale, stalled his Toyota towards the end of the opening stage and lost over 20 seconds before it fired back into action. He made a storming drive up the leader board and is looking forward to tomorrow’s six stages in the Fermanagh forests.

Belgian Freddy Loix (Suzuki Ignis) ended the day in sixth just 2.2 seconds ahead of the rally’s top seed, Sweden’s, Daniel Carlsson (Mitsubishi).

The overnight top ten is completed by Roy White (Mitsubishi), Noel McCarrick (Subaru) and Sean Devine (Subaru).

The day’s main retirement was that of Austin MacHale, his Ford Focus, third after S.S. 1, slid off the road on the next stage, although his car was relatively undamaged, he failed to get back on the road.

1. M. Wilson/M. Orr (Ford Focus WRC) 1h. 08m. 55.0s.

2. E. Boland/F. Regan (Ford Focus WRC) 1h. 09m. 48.2s.

3. K. Lynch/A. Harryman (Subaru WRC) 1h. 09m. 53.5s.

4. G. Allen/D. Connolly (Toyota Corolla WRC) 1h. 12m. 10.3s.

5. G. MacHale/P. Nagle (Toyota Corolla WRC) 1h. 12m. 53.1s.

6. F. Loix/R. Buysmans (Suzuki Ignis) 1h. 12m. 54.8s.

7. D. Carlsson/M. Andersson (Mitsubishi) 1h. 12m. 57.0s.

8. R. White/S. McCauley (Mitsubishi) 1h. 14m. 22.8s.

9. N. McCarrick/A. O’Brien (Subaru WRC) 1h. 15m. 51.9s.

10. S. Devine/K. Duffy (Subaru) 1h. 16m. 17.7s.