Donnelly wins Rally Isle of Man

Eugene Donnelly and co-driver, Paul Kiely in their Reid Transport backed S12 Subaru WRC took a facile victory in Rally Isle of Man this afternoon.

They finished the 22-stage event with a winning margin of four minutes and 21.6 seconds over the Ford Focus WRC of Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan.

The added onus for Donnelly/Kiely is that the move into the lead of the Global Group Irish Tarmac

Championship – five points ahead of pre-event leaders, Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Subaru), although they rejoined the rally today – under Super Rally rules – they finished 34th. And outside the points for their Irish Tarmac bid.

Meanwhile, Guy Wilks/Phil Pugh (Mitsubishi) were third overall today, they took top points in the Tesco 99 British Championship points. Wyn Humphreys now leads that series.

Today, Wilks and Paul Bird and Andreas Mikkelsen battled for the minor placings, although Bird moved into third a few stages from the finish, Wilks, who was stymied by a gearbox problem, made a determined bid and reeled in his rival before the finish.

Bird came under pressure from Norwegian, Andreas Mikkelsen, who had to be content with fifth.

For Mikkelsen, who slipped to 14th. Yesterday, his fight back was one of the talking points of the rally.

Donegal’s, James Cullen finished 7th overall and took top points within the Group N Irish Tarmac series.

Northern Ireland’s, Darren Gass (Citroen C2) won the S1600 category.

1. E. Donnelly/P. Kiely (Subaru WRC) 2h. 16m. 23.2s.

2. E. Boland/F. Regan (Ford Focus WRC) 2h. 20m. 44.8s.

3. G. Wilks/P. Pugh (Mitsubishi) 2h. 21m. 22.4s.

4. P. Bird/A. Richardson (Subaru WRC) 2h. 21m. 27.1s.

5. A. Mikkelsen/O. Floene (Ford Focus WRC) 2h. 21m. 35.7s.

6. G. Evans/H. Lewis (Mitsubishi) 2h. 22m. 09.0s.

7. J. Cullen/R. Graham (Mitsubishi) 2h. 29m. 42.3s.

8. PJ McDermott/S. Harris (Subaru WRC) 2h. 30m. 03.2s.

9. W. Humphreys/A. McKay (Subaru) 2h. 30m. 43.7s.

10. R. Swann/D. Garrod (Subaru) 2h. 30m.44.3s