MOTOR SPORT: Rally fans from all over the country turned up in their thousands at Punchestown Racecourse yesterday to pay homage to world rally superstar Colin McRae.
And the Flying Scotsman did not disappoint, as he arrived in style, swooping his Eurocopter G-BXYD down in front of the stands before landing at the back of the paddock, and then cooly dominating the World Rally Experience event.
He put on a a spectacular show, spinning the works Ford Focus RS in controlled power slides at the end of each of his six timed runs over the 4km rallysprint course, to the tumultuous approval of the packed grandstands.
Out on the course, his incredible high-speed control of the Focus was sheer poetry. McRae is the world's most successful driver with a record 25 championship rally wins, and yesterday he demonstrated that he was literally in a class of his own right from the start.
On his first run he set a time of two minutes 33.6 seconds to beat Austin McHale on 2.35 and Andrew Nesbitt on 2.35.2, in Toyota Corolla WRC and Subaru Impreza WRC, respectively.
McRae really enjoyed the course, remarking: "No bother. A good stage, quite fast and tricky in places".
On his second run he cut his time to 2.31.4 as Nesbitt recorded 2.33.7 to bump McHale back to third. After Stage Three McRae led on 7.35.7 with Nesbitt second on 7.42.1, McHale on 7.43.1 and Maurice Gass on 7.52.7, Derek McGarrity on 7.52.9 and Michael Barrable on 7.53.9 .
At the end of the lunch break McRae had a run in probably the world's most powerful Ford Focus, Dubliner Dermot Carnegie's 700 horsepower rallycross car.
Back in his rally car, with Jim Corr (of The Corrs) replacing jockey Richard Dunwoody in the hot seat, he was again fastest.
After the six runs McRae had a winning margin of 14 seconds over Nesbitt. Austin McHale was third, and, to complete a good day for the Rathcoole family, his son Aaron won Group N in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 5 (15.54.3).
Many of the Irish competitors at Punchestown compete in this weekend's Manx Rally, in which reigning Tarmac champion Nesbitt is chasing a third victory after winning the Circuit of Ireland and the Killarney Rally of The Lakes.
WORLD RALLY EXPERIENCE (at Punchestown): 1 C McRae (Ford Focus RS WRC) 15 mins 14.4 sec; 2 A Nesbitt (Subaru Impreza WRC) 15:28.4; 3 A McHale (Toyota Corolla WRC) 15:41.5; 4 M Barrable (Impreza) 15:51.8; 5 D McGarrity (Impreza) 15:54.0; 6 M Gass (Impreza) 15;54.3.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)