NEWS ARTICLE
2008 Circuit of Ireland Report
It’s Easter time, which means round two of the Irish Tarmac championship. Mark Higgins and Gareth MacHale are favourite’s for the win but Eamonn Boland has been getting quicker and quicker in his Impreza and could be a dark horse for the win.
Day One
SS1 Bernish Rock – It’s Eamonn Boland who has the bit between his teeth when the times are handed in after the first stage of the Easter spectacular. The roads are bone dry and the Wexford man was flying over the opening test.
Boland went 3.6 seconds quicker than championship leader Mark Higgins in his Impreza and a further 14 quicker than Derek McGarrity in another Impreza. Gareth MacHale only managed fourth while brother Aaron in a similar Ford Focus lay in sixth split by Subaru driver Tim McNulty.
SS2 Anglesey Mountain stage – Manxman Mark Higgins took the quickest time on this test moving him into the overall lead of the rally. He was five seconds faster than Gareth MacHale and the early rally leader Eamonn Boland was over 20s back demoting him to second overall.
In Group N Roy White was fastest through the 2nd stage to move into the category lead in his MG S2000.
Others were not having a good rally in the showroom category - John McGlaughlin’s Lancer nearly ran out of fuel on the 2nd stage, and Garry Jennings Lancer blew it’s turbo and had to retire from the rally.
After the second run through the mornings stages it was all change at the business end of the field. On SS3 and SS4 the 2008 Circuit of Ireland Rally had bitten.
Championship leaders Mark Higgins and Rory Kennedy had to retire as their Subaru Impreza went out of the rally with a suspected broken differential or drive shaft at the start of stage 4.
This meant that Wexford pilot Eamonn Boland went back into the lead of the rally. Derek McGarrity lay in second – well placed at the end of the first day after his long lay off with injury.
Tim McNulty had moved into third while Gareth MacHale ended the first day of the rally in fourth place.
While Roy White was in control in GpN ahead of John McGlaughlin in his Evo.
Unofficial Leaderboard - End of Day One
| 1st Eamonn Boland - Subaru Impreza WRC | 57m11.6s |
| 2nd Derek McGarrity - Subaru Impreza WRC | 58m05.8s |
| 3rd Tim McNulty - Subaru Impreza WRC | 58m06.7s |
| 4th Gareth MacHale - Ford Focus WRC | 58m17.9s |
| 5th Aaron MacHale - Ford Focus WRC | 59m45.2 |
| 6th Roy White - MG S2000 | 1h01m22.6s |
| 7th John McGlaughlin - Mitsubishi Lancer GpN | 1h02m48.6 |
| 8th Brendan Cumiskey - Mitsubishi Lancer GpN | 1h04m19.8s |
| 9th Mike Bird - Subaru Impreza GpN | 1h05m16.3s |
| 10th (40) David Wright - Mitsubishi Lancer GpN | 1h05m16.3s |
Day Two
The stages were again based around the Newry area and the first to waken properly was Gareth MacHale – he went quicker than Tim McNulty by a fraction of a second. Eamonn Boland remained in the rally lead and reported no problems from the opening stage of the morning.
Roy White continues to lead group N but his MG S2000 but he is worried about mechanical gremlins.
Over the 9.19 miles Cornoonagh Hill stage it was Gareth MacHale who was fastest again in his Focus WRC putting the pressure on rally leader Eamonn Boland. Boland finished the test second fastest and Derek McGarrity was third quickest.
In Group N it was all change as the mechanical gremlins had struck and Roy White had to retire from the rally.
This leaves John McGlaughlin leading the showroom category.
The second run over the Windy Gap stage saw Tim McNulty take thestage win with Gareth MacHale second quickest. Boland this time was in third – five seconds further back while Derek McGarrity ended the test in fourth 9 seconds down.
SS8 saw another fastest time for Duliner Gareth MacHale – two seconds quicker than McNulty and 9 seconds up on Boland. The fight for the lead is really amongst these 3, with Gareth and Tim really pushing hard.
Derek McGarrity’s bid for a 4th Circuit of Ireland victory was hit when the Glengormley man’s Subaru broke the power steering belt losing him 50 seconds to the leaders.
In Group N John McGlaughlin remained in first place.
SS9 saw the Circuit gremlins strike again as Derek McGarrity retired from the 2008 even with a blown engine.
Fastest through the test was Tim McNulty – he was followed closely by Eamonn Boland and Gareth MacHale 3 seconds adrift. However, Wexford man Boland continued to lead the rally.
SS10 Gareth MacHale took the quickest time on the test. Three seconds quicker than Eamonn Boland.
But in SS11 it was Boland’s turn – he went six seconds quicker than Gareth MacHale which meant Boland held on to the overall lead. McNulty lost out on SS11 as he stalled the Impreza on the tight chicanes.
SS12 saw Gareth MacHale go fastest through stage 12, 5 seconds up on Eamonn Boland with McNulty was a further 5s back.
No change in GpN meant John McGlaughlin led the category and was up to fifth overall.
End of day two
| 1st Eamonn Boland - Subaru Impreza WRC | 1h59m13.6s |
| 2nd (1) Gareth MacHale - Ford Focus WRC | 1h59m59.4s |
| 3rd (3) Tim McNulty - Subaru Impreza WRC | 2h00m58.5s |
| 4th (5) Aaron MacHale - Ford Focus WRC | 2h03m53.9s |
| 5th John McGlaughlin - Mitsubishi Lancer GpN | 2h09m10.5s |
| 6th (16) Brendan Cumiskey - Mitsubishi Lancer GpN | 2h12m51.7s |
| 7th (11) Kevin Kelleher - Mitsubishi Lancer GpN | 2h16m08.7s |
| 8th Denis Biggerstaff - Subaru Impreza WRC | 2h16m27.3s |
| 9th David Wright - Mitsubishi Lancer GpN | 2h17m17.2s |
| 10th Tommy Doyle - Renault Clio | 2h20m14.8s |
Day Three
The final day of the 2008 Circuit of Ireland Rally saw the gap between rally leader Eamonn Boland and second placed Gareth MacHale at just 26 seconds.
Through the first stage of the day - Knockiveagh between Banbridge and Rathfriland Eamonn Boland re-asserted his authority and went eight seconds faster than Gareth MacHale to widen his advantage to 34s with 5 stages remaining.
John McGlaughlin continued to lead group N and was under no threat from the two group N cars behind, Brendan Cumiskey and Kevin Kelleher.
SS16 MacHale closed the gap to Boland to 24 seconds but on SS17 Boland hit back and the gap increased to 35 seconds with only three stages remaining.
While third placed Tim McNulty said that he was resigned to third and was driving for a finish.
SS18 saw Gareth MacHale take a full 19 seconds off Boland and meant the 2008 Circuit would go to the wire.
So there’s only two stages to go and just 14s between Eamonn and Gareth….
SS19 Gareth MacHale in the Ford Focus again went fastest but Boland was able to stop the Dubliner from pipping him as the Wexford man went quickest on SS20 – the final stage of the rally and take his first ever Circuit of Ireland win.
Eamonn Boland’s Subaru finished just 4.9s ahead of Gareth MacHale’s Focus WRC to take the win, while Tim McNulty came home third in the Pierse backed Subaru. Aaron MacHale was 4th, and John McGlaughlin was 5th and won group N category in his Lancer ahead of Brendan Cumiskey in 6th and 2nd GpN.
Provisionally the Global Group Tarmac points show Eamonn Boland now leading on 25 points with Tim McNulty 2nd on 22. Gareth MacHale is 3rd on 16 and Mark Higgins tying with Aaron MacHale for 4th on 15 points.
Unofficial final leaderboard
| 1st Eamonn Boland - Subaru Impreza WRC | 3h03m21.4s |
| 2nd Gareth MacHale - Ford Focus WRC | 3h03m26.3s |
| 3rd Tim McNulty - Subaru Impreza WRC | 3h04m47.2s |
| 4th Aaron MacHale - Ford Focus WRC | 3h15m24.4s |
| 5th John McGlaughlin - Mitsubishi Lancer GpN | 3h21m09.5s |
| 6th Brendan Cumiskey - Mitsubishi Lancer GpN | 3h23m06.8s |
| 7th Denis Biggerstaff - Subaru Impreza WRC | 3h27m00.7s |
| 8th Kevin Kelleher - Mitsubishi Lancer GpN | 3h29m44.4s |
| 9th David Wright - Mitsubishi Lancer GpN | 3h30m11.9s |
| 10th Tommy Doyle - Renault Clio | 3h36m02.0s |
IMN would like to thank our sponsors, P&O Irish Sea Ferries and Discover Ireland, for supporting our covergae of this event.
Simon McBride
