Nesbitt makes long-awaited breakthrough in Donegal

ANDREW NESBITT, the 35-year-old from Armagh, has broken into the winner's enclosure at last with victory in the Donegal International Rally.

"We've worked very hard for a long number of years for this," said an ecstatic Nesbitt as he drove his Toyota Celica GT4 on to the finish ramp in Letterkenny yesterday evening. He beat Letterkenny's James Cullen, in a Ford Escort RS Cosworth, by 29 seconds.

Bertie Fisher led from Nesbitt and Cullen after Friday's six stages, just 13 seconds covering the first three. But Fisher crashed on the Atlantic Drive stage on Saturday, dropping 40 seconds and slipping back to third as Nesbitt took over the lead.

Nesbitt then had a spin on the second run over Atlantic Drive, which gave Cullen a 10 seconds lead. Cullen's car was under-geared, which cost him on the longer straight, but Fisher encountered more trouble when he clipped a rock with his Subaru Impreza and dropped a minute on his second run over the Fanad stage.

The Saturday overnight positions saw Nesbitt with an 11-second advantage over Cullen. Fisher had it all to do, one minute 26 seconds behind Cullen.

Ludvig Hunsbedt of Norway powered his Ford Escort RS Cosworth off the line to beat Citroen drivers Jean Luc Pailler (France) and Kenneth Hansen (Sweden) into the first corner of the Division Two final at yesterday's Barum/Citroen European Rallycross Championship event at Mondello Park. Under intense pressure Hunsbedt not only held his lead but pulled away slightly to take the victory before a capacity crowd.

Will Gollop won the B final, having finished fifth in the A final at the wheel of his Peugeot 306 Turbo. John Moloney of Limerick was fifth in the B final, but a major disappointment was Dermot Carnegie's non-appearance, the Dublin driver having engine trouble with his Escort Cosworth in Saturday's practise and he was unable to find a suitably powerful replacement engine in time. Another non-starter was Norway's Martin Schance, whose special Escort Cosworth blew its engine during testing on Friday.