Ian Greer and Dean Beckett in a Toyota Celica GT4 were the undisputed winners of the Cork 20 International Rally, the final round of the Toshiba Tarmac Rally Championship.
The Ulster crew have been on the pace in rallying over the last three years in particular, but their finishing record has suffered too many times through excessive enthusiasm. This time they dictated the pace, never wilting under pressure and as others fell by the wayside, they were there at the finish to score their first International victory.
Bertie Fisher and Rory Kennedy played it safe to finish second, one minute 13 seconds behind the winners, but they badly needed that result after a season marked by a number of big "off's" in their Subaru Impreza. Liam O'Call aghan's third gives the Kanturk driver the Formula 2 award in the championship, and is particularly rewarding as he easily held off the challenge of Bob Fowden and Liam McCarthy in their more powerful 4-wheel-drive Ford Escort Cosworths with his front-wheeldrive Escort Maxi.
Austin McHale was a non-starter due to steering rack troubles on the Celica GT4. The first day saw the retirement of Frank Meagher's Escort with transmission trouble and Denis Cronin rolled his BMW. Stephen Murphy retired his Escort with steering rack troubles and Michael Barrable's Celica was sidelined with broken transmission.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)