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 Eugene Donnelly wins Rally Ireland
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- Garry Jennings 2nd in Group N and 7th overall
- Darren Gass takes Super 1600 spoils
Eugene Donnelly and co-driver Paul Kiely have won Rally Ireland, Ireland's candidate WRC event.
Donnelly's KUMHO-backed Toyota Corolla WRC finished some two minutes ahead of the Ford Focus WRC of Eamonn Boland and Francis Regan with the Swedish WRC pairing of Daniel Carlsson and Jonas Andersson (Mitsubishi) claiming third.
Donnelly began the final day of the March 10-12 tarmac event with a lead of 13.4 seconds but his chief rival Gareth MacHale almost cancelled that out on the opening stage. However, by the end of the next stage MacHale had put himself out of contention, crashing his Ford Focus at a right hand bend in foggy conditions and allowing Donnelly to ease off and cruise to victory.
After the event, Rally Ireland 2006 winner Eugene Donnelly commented: "It would be a dream come true for someone like me who is a true rallyman at heart to have the WRC come to Ireland. We've shown that we can provide great challenging stages and inject new ingredients into WRC that will make it special and unique. And I'm delighted to win Rally Ireland."
Piloting a Mitsubishi EVO 9, fellow KUMHO driver Garry Jennings finished seventh overall and an excellent second in class to the factory run Subaru Impreza of Australian WRC contestant, Chris Atkinson. Seventeen year-old Darren Gass took the Super 1600 honours in his KUMHO-shod Ford Fiesta, despite having to finish the second stage on three wheels.
Eugene Donnelly is also sponsored by KUMHO Northern Ireland distributor Modern Tyres Services whose director, Connor Byrne, co-driven by brother Niall, finished a fighting 14th overall in their Mitsubishi EVO 7.
Top ten finishers*:
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| 1. | Eugene Donnelly (Derry) | 2:20:35.1 |
| 2. | Eamon Boland (Wexford) | +1:57.8 |
| 3. | Daniel Carlsson (Sweden) | +4:31.6 |
| 4. | Chris Atkinson (Australia) | +5:30.9 |
| 5. | Patrick Elliott (Cavan) | +8:00.4 |
| 6. | Aaron MacHale (Dublin) | +12:02.2 |
| 7. | Garry Jennings (Enniskillen) | +12:35.8 |
| 8. | Shaun Gallagher (Donegal) | +14:56.2 |
| 9. | Paul Harris (Donegal) | +16:08.3 |
| 10. | Conor McCloskey (Cavan) | +16:26.4 |
*Provisional results
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