Higgins wins Murphy Construction Cork 20 International Rally

British rally champion Mark Higgins and his Letterkenny co-driver Rory Kennedy in the Fitz Samuel Insurance-backed Subaru WRC have won the Cork 20 International Rally, the final round of the Pirelli Irish Tarmac Championship.

At the end of the 14-stage rally, Manx born Higgins and Kennedy were a minute and 17 seconds ahead of team mates, Markko Martin and his co-driver, David Senior also in a McKinstry prepared Subaru WRC. Eugene Donnelly and Paul Kiely, the Irish Tarmac champions were third in their Toyota Corolla WRC.

The Group N category was won by James Foley/Lisa Roe (Mitsubishi).

Today, Higgins started out some 37 seconds adrift of Junior World rally star Guy Wilks, but the latter clouted his Subaru against a chicane on the day’s opening stage - burst an oil cooler and his car caught fire. Higgins then took up the lead role followed by Martin and Andrew Nesbitt, who led the Irish challenge.

At the service halt at the Cork Racecourse in Mallow, Higgins was over a minute ahead and although he remarked hat he was going to ease off, the slippery conditions still posed a real threat.

Martin remained in second with Nesbitt in touching distance – 11.3 seconds adrift.

However, he too was having to watch his won position as Eugene Donnelly, who was fastest on S.S. 10 had closed to ten seconds of the Armagh driver.

Out on S.S. 12, Nesbitt put his Mitsubishi off the road and Donnelly was able to coast to third behind martin and rally winner, Higgins.

Gareth Jones, who had a slight excursion on the opening stage today, brought his Subaru home in fourth place ahead of Norwegian, Andreas Mikkelsen (Ford focus WRC).

Multiple Irish Tarmac champion, Austin MacHale (Ford Focus WRC) was sixth.

The top ten also included Mel Evans, PJ McGrath in Subaru WRC’s, Group N winner, James Foley and local Cork driver, Liam McCarthy (Toyota Corolla WRC).

Limerick’s, Colm Murphy (Subaru) clinched victory in the Group N category of the Pirelli Irish Championship.

1. M. Higgins/R. Kennedy (Subaru) 2h. 00m. 59.5s.

2. M. Martin/D. Senior (Subaru WRC) 2h. 02m. 16.5s.

3. E. Donnelly/P. Kiely (Toyota Corolla WRC) 2h. 02m. 31.1s.

4. G. Jones/D. Moynihan (Subaru WRC) 2h. 03m. 56.8s.

5. A. Mikkelsen/O. Floena (Ford Focus WRC) 2. 06m. 13.0s.

6. A. MacHale/B. Murphy (Ford Focus WRC) 2h. 06m. 24.4s.

7. M. Evans/S. Mullally (Subaru WRC) 2h. 06m. 55.9s.

8. P.J. McGrath/K. Duffy (Subaru WRC) 2h. 08m. 07.8s.

9. J. Foley/L. Roe (Mitsubishi) 2h. 08m. 24.1s.

10. L. McCarthy/K. Murphy (Toyota Corolla WRC) 2h. 09m. 09.0s.