2008 Irish Tarmac Championship
2008 Safety Direct Galway International Rally
The 2008 Global Group Irish Tarmac Rally championship is back and starts in Galway as is traditional this weekend.
The leading contenders for the title and the rally win is reigning Irish champion Eugene Donnelyy, Manxman Mark Higgiins plus other Irish hopefuls such as Gareth MacHale, Aaron MacHale, Tim McNulty and Eamonn Boland to name but a few.
Manxman Higgins takes his first win on the season on the final stage of the rally in his Pirelli shod Subaru Impreza S12B.
There was drama right to the end of this year’s 2008 Safety Direct Galway International Rally - Mark Higgins and his co driver Rory Kennedy went into the last stage under 2s behind Tim McNulty and came out just over 9s ahead to score a fantastic win. McNulty had to make do with second overall in his slightly older S11.
Higgins commented “We had to push hard really hard on the final stage as Tim put up a great fight. I’m delighted to have won.”
Tim McNulty said. “In the end we just didn’t have enough but I would have settled for a top 3 place before the rally. We can build up on this for the Tarmac championship, its been a good weekend for us”.
Eamonn Boland was quick throughout the rally and even led at one point – a great performance to take the final step on the podium.
But it was another Galway to forget fo Eugene Donnelly, bad luck struck again as his Subaru broke its gearbox and he was forced to pull out before the last stage of the event.
Kevin Kelleher and his brother Martin won group N in their Lancer while John McGlaughlin and his co driver Crawford Henderson finished second in 2nd in the showroom category.
Garry Jennings survived a couple of punctures in his Lancer to take 3rd GpN.
Simon McBride
* All times and placings subject to the FIA approval.
