Boland wins Circuit of Ireland

An exciting finish to the Circuit of Ireland Rally resulted in a narrow 4.9 second victory for Wexford’s, Eamonn Boland/Damien Morrissey (Subaru WRC) who fended off the challenge of Gareth MacHale/Craig Parry (Ford Focus WRC).

Tim McNulty/Eugene O’Donnell (Subaru WRC) were third.

On the first of the morning’s opening stages, Boland added 8.4 seconds to his overnight lead of some 26 seconds.

A stage later, MacHale gained 10.2 seconds but an overshoot on S.S. 17 saw him drop precious time in his bid to close the deficit.

At the Newry service halt, Boland led by 35.5 seconds with just three stages remaining, MacHale admitted he had a difficult, if not an impossible task.

Third placed McNulty waited in the wings while Aaron MacHale lost over five minutes with a gearbox problem at the start of Stage 15, nevertheless, he remained fourth.

John McGlaughlin continued to maintain a strong advantage in Group N from fellow Mitsubishi drivers, Brendan Cumiskey and Kevin Kelleher.

On Stage 18, MacHale whittled Boland’s advantage down to 14.4 seconds and prior to the final stage, he had cut the deficit to just 4 seconds.

However, Boland repelled the challenge and went top claim his first ever Circuit of Ireland victory and his second win in a round of the Irish Tarmac series, he previously won the 2003 Cork “20” International Rally.

McNulty finished over a minute behind in third, Aaron MacHale, who lost five minutes with transmission trouble, was fourth and fifth placed, John McGlaughlin (Mitsubishi) won Group N.

1. E. Boland/D. Morrissey (Subaru WRC) 3h. 03m. 21.4s.

2. G. MacHale/C. Parry (Ford Focus WRC) 3h. 03m. 26.3s.

3. T. McNulty/E. O'Donnell (Subaru WRC) 3h. 04m. 47.2s.

4. A. MacHale/K. Duffy (Ford Focus WRC) 3h. 15m. 24.4s.

5. J. McGlaughlin/C. Henderson (Mitsubishi) 3h. 21m. 09.5s.

6. B. Cumiskey/C. Foley (Mitsubishi) 3h. 23m. 06.8s.

7. D. Biggerstaff/A. Wylie (Subaru WRC) 3h. 27m. 00.7s.

8. K. Kelleher/M. Kelleher (Mitsubishi) 3h. 29m. 44.4s.

9. D. Wright/S. Wright (Mitsubishi) 3h. 30m. 11.9s.

10. T. Doyle/T. McDaid (Renault Clio R3) 3h. 36m. 02.0s.