Meeke is tops in the Rally of the Lakes

The Ordnance Survey Killarney International Rally of the Lakes, the third round of the Global Group Irish Tarmac Championship, has been won by Dungannon’s, Kris Meeke and his Swedish co-driver, Jonas Andersson.

Driving the McKinstry run Subaru WRC, they finished the 17 special stages with a 12.8 second winning margin over the reigning Irish Tarmac champions, Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Subaru WRC).

With an overnight advantage of some 25 seconds, Meeke didn’t take any undue risks and held a buffer over Donnelly through the morning stages.

Donnelly felt unwell and also had to contend with a charging Mikkelsen; at one point, the Norwegian was within 2.5 seconds of second spot.

In front of thousands of spectators, Meeke went into the final stage with a lead of just 12.1 seconds with Mikkelsen a further 6.8 seconds in arrears.

Meeke signed off in perfect fashion by setting the fastest time on the final stage to secure a tremendous victory.

Mark Higgins made a spirited recovery and eventually finished fourth.

A number of retirements aided his efforts.

They included Kevin Lynch (brake trouble), Stephen Murphy (exhaust manifold); Tim McNulty and Patrick Elliott, both of whom crashed out.

Former four-time winner, Austin MacHale came home fifth ahead of his son, Gareth, who lost five minutes with a puncture.

Gareth Jones, twelfth overnight, came through to take seventh.

Colm Murphy (Subaru) was a very convincing winner of Group N, he finished almost three minutes ahead of local Killarney driver, Kevin O’Donoghue.

1.K. Meeke/J. Andersson (Subaru WRC) 2h. 19. 25.1s.

2. E. Donnelly/P. Kiely (Subaru WRC) 2h. 19m. 37.9s.

3. A. Mikkelsen/O. Floene (Ford Focus WRC) 2h. 20m. 02.8s.

4. M. Higgins/R. Kennedy (Subaru WRC) 2h. 22m. 12.9s.

5. A. MacHale/B. Murphy (Ford Focus WRC) 2h. 26m. 03.6s.

6. G. MacHale/P. Nagle (Ford Focus WRC) 2h. 27m.40.9s.

7. G. Jones/G. Shinnors (Ford Focus WRC) 2h. 28m.11.2s.

8. C. Murphy/G. Loughrey (Subaru) 2h. 32m. 17.2s.

9. JJ Fleming/R. Ward (Ford Focus WRC) 2h. 33m. 27.2s.

10. K. O'Donoghue/J. O'Leary (Mitsubishi) 2h. 35m.11.9s.

NATIONAL RALLY:

1.J. Stafford/F. Dwyer (Darrian) 2h. 28m. 32.9s.

2. W. Patterson/R. Guest (Escort) 2h. 30m. 31.3s.

3. F. O'Meara/L. Brennan (Escort) 2h. 30m. 49.8s.

4. J. O'Donovan/S. O'Donovan (Escort Cosworth) 2h.35m. 34.7s.

5. L. Davis/B. Kelleher (Escort) 2h. 37m. 25.1s.

6. J. Hickey/S. Kelly (Escort) 2h. 37m. 40.5s.