Donnelly’s Delight in Donegal
Eugene Donnelly has won the Shell Donegal International Rally 2005, the fourth round of the Pirelli Irish Tarmac championship for the second time in as many years.
The Toyota man came home first after a dramatic weekend which seen early leader Andrew Nesbitt crash out. Nesbitt crashed out on the famous Knockalla stage on Saturday’s loop of stages while leading, this handed the lead to Donnelly. His next closest challenger was Derek McGarrity in his Subaru Impreza who was in second place until his Subaru had problems and lost over six minutes dropping him down the field.
Second Place eventually went to Tim McNulty in his Subaru Impreza S10 who drove a tremendous rally and collected an excellent second place due to the misfortunes of others. McNulty was having a great battle with Eamonn Boland in a similar Impreza until Boland’s car stopped on the final stage. This meant that Austin MacHale in his Ford Focus grabbed third spot.
Fourth was Derek McGarrity who climbed back up the table after his problems. Fifth was Kevin Barrett in a Subaru Impreza. Rounding up the top six was Welsh visitor Gareth Jones in yet another Subaru, while seventh was Steve Perez in his ‘VK’ Ford focus WRC. Eighth was former Northern Ireland rally champion Denis Biggerstaff in his older spec Subaru Impreza. Among the non-finishers were Newtownards man Cathal Arthurs who was as high as tenth in his Hyundai, Kevin Lynch, Maurice Gass and Sean Devine were the other notable drivers not to finish.
In the Group N category Gary Jennings took the top spot in his Mitsubishi Lancer from Sean Gallagher in a similar car.
The next round of the Pirelli Irish Tarmac Championship is the Jim Clarke rally in Scotland where it meets with the British Championship and is sure to be another top event in the motorsport calendar.
