Moore takes advantage of McGurk’s retirement to win Toshiba rally

TREVOR MOORE, in an Escort Cosworth, won the Toshiba Rally after he capitalised on the retirement of Robbie McGurk (Subaru) who set the pace through the first five stages.

At the completion of the ten stages in the Antrim forests, Moore headed the Subaru of Derek McGarrity by nine seconds with Eugene Donnelly (Toyota Celica) taking third, another 13 seconds behind.

McGurk took a three second advantage from the first stage with Eugene Donnelly a second ahead of Eamonn Boland and McGarrity a further second back. The opening test claimed the Escort Cosworth of Dominic McNeill, who slid off at a hairpin and Glen Allen (Escort WRC), who retired with engine difficulties.

While McGurk retained the lead, Trevor Moore (Escort Cosworth), moved into a challenging second place - five seconds off the rally leader after three stages. McGarrity, who selected the wrong tyres, dropped to third, some 14 off the lead pace. Donnelly, the newly crowned Irish Forest Champion, held a comfortable fourth from the Mitsubishi of Stevie Whitford, Eamonn Boland and Dermot Kelly, who lost time as he encountered slower cars on the stage.

On the short and snappy Glenariff stage, Moore and McGarrity were equal fastest and on the fifth stage, rally leader, McGurk was the dominant force as he duly extended his advantage to eight seconds. Fifth placed Eamonn Boland lost time when his Subaru went off the track and the impact inflicted damage to the rear of his WRC.

The sixth stage saw the retirement of leader McGurk when his Subaru stopped in the stage and Moore was perfectly placed to then take advantage. Another retirement was that of Kevin O’Kane (Subaru). Moore arrived at the finish of stage seven with a ten second lead over McGarrity. Donnelly, in third, was a further 13 adrift followed by Whitford, Boland and Richard Hall (Escort Cosworth).

McGarrity’s hopes of reeling in Moore suffered a setback when his Subaru WRC developed brake problems and he was forced to dilute his challenge. Over the final stages, Moore held his composure and won by nine seconds from McGarrity with Donnelly a further 13 seconds in arrears. Whitford finished fourth and Eamonn Boland, on what was a shakedown for the Rally of Great Britain, was fifth.

World champion, Marcus Gronholm took his fifth win of the season on Rally Australia, the penultimate round of the World Championship. It was yet another 1-2 for Peugeot with his team mate, Harri Rovanpera in superb form on the third leg taking second ahead of the Subaru of Petter Solberg. Tommi Makinen was excluded from fourth place when his Subaru was found to be under weight. Ford pair, Carlos Sainz and Markko Martin were next with Makinen’s exclusion allowing Toni Gardemeister into a points scoring finished sixth. Colin McRae retired on the second leg when his Ford Focus landed heavily over one of the famous jumps and the touchdown broke the radiator. Six drivers including Richard Burns and Colin McRae can claim second place in the drivers section.

Meanwhile, Andrew Hannigan, originally from Donegal but now residing in Perth and Finian Hannigan from Donegal finished 30th overall. Their Daihatsu Charade GTi was off the road on the fourth stage and also experienced problems on a road section en-route to the finish of the second leg. Fortunately, they managed to make the final control, albeit with the incursion of a 90 second penalty. On the final leg, they climbed over ten places to claim the F2 category.

Philip Shaw (Escort) won the Triton Showers North-East Single Stage Rally near Ardee by 19 seconds from the similar Escort of Norman Armstrong, who led by a single second after the first of the three timed runs. However, he spun on the second run and lost over 15 seconds and that ultimately cost him victory. Martin Taggart, also in an Escort, was third.

Pete Willoughby/Greg Shinnors (Opel Kadett) had a facile win in the Cork Startrek Navigation Trial, the fourth round of the Senator Engineering Munster Navigation series. On the route that began near Macroom and traversed areas of Coachford, Rylane and Nadd, collected just 22 penalty points while second placed Roy White/Denis O’Donovan (Subaru Legacy) amassed 168 penalties. One of the performances of the event came from Diarmuid French/Jason O’Mahony, who finished third.