Reigning champions seal another victory

MOTOR SPORT/Rally Ireland: At yesterday's Sligo finish of Rally Ireland, winner Eugene Donnelly (Maghera) expressed his delight for co-driver Paul Kiely - "I'm thrilled for him to win in his home town."

For reigning Irish Champions Donnelly and Kiely it was their second major win of the year in their Toyota Corolla WRC, having won the Galway International in February.

Wexford's Eamonn Boland, with Francis Regan on the pace notes, brought his Ford Focus WRC home second in this event for the second successive year. He was two minutes behind Donnelly, but like the winner he drove the last of yesterday's stages for a finish rather than risking it all in the tricky conditions. Daniel Carlsson (Sweden) was third, finishing a place higher than in 2005.

Gareth MacHale led after the first five stages on Saturday. After changing the suspension settings and switching to wet weather tyres, Donnelly piled on the pressure to lead the rally after six stages by 13.4 seconds.

MacHale lost 20 seconds at the start of SS6 when the engine of his Ford Focus WRC would not start. Boland held a steady third and fourth placed Australian Chris Atkinson led Group N in a Subaru Impreza.

Sweden's Daniel Carlsson was seriously delayed when his Mitsubishi WRC had a punctured tyre on SS2, dropping him from second down to 17th. He was further delayed by malfunctioning windscreen wipers which proved a hugh disadvantage in the heavy rain that fell in Co Fermanagh in particular, but he battled back to slot into sixth in the overnight standings.

Yesterday morning MacHale cut Donnelly's lead down to just 0.7 second with an awesome performance over the first stage, covering 21.85 kms of twisting Leitrim roads in 11 minutes 43.6 seconds. His co-driver Paul Nagle was visibly shaken at the stage finish, commenting "he gave it eleven tenths".

MacHale was on a charge, but low cloud and fog reduced visibility on the next stage, and the Ford Focus WRC slid off the stage and out of the rally. With the retirement of MacHale the sting left the rally.

Carlsson and co-driver Jonas Anderson had their personal drama when their Mitsubishi ran out of fuel and they had to push the car into parc ferme within the allotted time to claim third overall. Chris Atkinson finished fourth to win Group N Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman were fifth in a Subaru WRC and Aaron MacHale, with co-driver Ger McMonigle, upheld family honour by finishing sixth in a Toyota Corolla WRC.