New vroom leaves Ireland looking good

Motor Sport/World Rally Championship: Johnny Wattersonon the welter of noise and colour that ended in a win for Sébastien Loeb

The first car appeared and vanished. An electric-blue-and-red flash across the Mullaghmore headland, Illaunee Beg in the background, Illaunee More to the north and the Atlantic Ocean, for the first time in days, showing a blue hue as the sun finally broke through.

This was optics Rally Ireland style. Highly stylised and awash with 2.2 kilometres of dramatic backdrops, Yeats's spare country has rarely been so brash, loud and streaked with colour.

It was the final lap along the coast road in one of Ireland's most scenic spots and was as much a lap of honour for the triumph of the championship itself as for the last stage of a race that had captivated this whole region for four days.

In truth it contrived to also be a procession for the Frenchman Sébastien Loeb, who had effectively wrapped up the race and the lead in the World Championship when his main rival, Marcus Grönholm, slid his machine sideways into a stone wall on Friday and departed.

After Grönholm crashed out, Loeb won four of the following day's five stages. The 33-year-old has indeed mastered the art of ruthlessly taking advantage.

"To win here, especially when Marcus has no points, it's very good," said Loeb.

"And it's important for the championship. If I'd made a mistake here Marcus could have won the (world) championship easily. But now I take the lead."

For the fans that arrived in Mullaghmore and Donegal for the morning stage north of Ballyshannon, the event was an opportunity to state their intent and demonstrate their enthusiasm.

They are saying they want this race back here in two years' time, they wish this corner of the island to be part of the world's rally circuit.

If the tens of thousands who jammed the lanes and traversed muddy fields and clambered over dry-stone walls and five-bar gates to seek out the best vantage points are a measure of rallying's popularity, then the organisers could hardly be other than impressed.

If the powers that be were also to give points for every onlooker's car with go a go-faster fin on the boot, low-slung aprons below the bumper and a young male rally enthusiast behind the wheel, then north Sligo and south Donegal could secure a world championship deal for the next 10 years.

At the stage set-pieces, overhead television and official helicopters whined, and as the cars sped across the humps and dips, shooting fire from exhausts and skirting what were sheer drops onto the embattled limestone cliffs that edge this part of the Northwest, there was a captivating sense of theatre.

The drama appeared to surge and die and surge again. A car was heard with the gears clunking up and down. A flicker of colour then loomed over a hillock, until it became a car. Then as soon as it arrived, sliding and skidding as it sought purchase on the tarmac, it disappeared again, down a hollow or around a corner.

That was what most of the fans saw: sharp bursts of speed and noise approaching, hurtling past and moving away. But they picked out the colour.

Red Citroëns meant Loeb or his Spanish teammate, Dani Sordo. A yellow bonnet signalled Finland's Mikko Hirvonen. A white Ford Focus was Ireland's Gareth MacHale.

Racing here against his brother, Aaron, and father, Austin, the young MacHale was rewarded for a fine week's driving with eighth place, the second time the privateer has stepped into a World Rally event against works professionals and come away with points.

"It was a very fast and narrow, very slippery," added Loeb of the itinerary over the four days.

"Everywhere lots of water, mud, incredible. But now I am leader again it is very important to concentrate (for the last round of the championship, in Wales).

"I just have to finish in fourth position to win. In Japan, Marcus gave me the position to take the lead. I didn't but here I did."

In all it was what they said round 15 of the 2007 FIA World Rally Championship would be.

The Rally Ireland chairman, Eddie Jordan, was there to front up to the cameras doing what he does best, talking. The event embraced a North-South mindset of co-operation and carried the torch for Irish tourism.

In short, this multi-purpose vehicle ticked all the boxes and also showed, as if it now needed to be regularly demonstrated, that Ireland can host large international sports events.

As for Loeb, he becomes the favourite to win the championship with just one event remaining. If he does go all the way, it will be his fourth consecutive world title and he may look to Ireland and recognise that here is where the 2007 year fell nicely for him.

He was asked on the finish line if he would come back to face the water and the mud and the stone walls.

"This is my third time back in Ireland," he replied. "I will come back here whenever you want.

"It was a different rally but interesting."

So it was.