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MacHale wins in Galway By Brian FoleyThe opening stages were made difficult by frost and fog. . British Rally Champion, Keith Cronin won the first stage, but his rally ended on stage two when his Lancer left the road. To the delight of the Galway spectators, Keith returned to action on the Sunday run, and set some stage winning times. Cronin was not the only high profile name to retire early on Saturday Morning. Fellow Mitsubishi drivers Jonny Greer and Gary Jennings also saw their rally end on day one, but like Keith, both returned for the Sunday Run. The overnight lead was held by Gareth MacHale. The Dubliner had a comfortable cushion of over a minute from Craig Breen, with Tim McNulty a further 30 seconds back in a Subaru WRC. However, McNulty’s charge ended on Stage 13 when his gearbox broke. It was hard luck for Tim who was enjoying a good battle with Breen for second place. Sunday’s stages saw little change in the leader board with most crews happy to keep their cars between the stonewalls. In the end it was left to Gareth to bring his Focus WRC back to Oranmore in one piece and bag maximum points in the Citroen Irish Tarmac Rally Championship. With both Craig Breen and Alastair Fisher receiving overall awards, the Group N Trophy went to Alan Ring and Adrian Deasy in their Munster Joinery Lancer. The National Rally was a one-horse show all weekend with the young Monaghan duo of Daniel McKenna and Andrew Grennan winning by almost 3 minutes. Galway also held the first round of the lucrative Citroen Racing Trophy. Current British C2 champion Marty McCormack was the early leader, but a series of punctures on Sunday handed Dubliner Robert Barrable the win. In the Fiesta Sporting Trophy, Stephen Wright and Paul McGee never put a wheel wrong all weekend and took a comfortable win. Stephen and Paul also finished 19th overall to round off a great Weekend. The Historic’s was won by local man Ray Cunningham while veteran Martin Ward took the Post Historic prize. Damien Whoriskey took the Junior Prize. After Galway, the focus switches to the legendary Circuit of Ireland rally over the Easter Weekend where Gareth will look to extend his lead in the Citroen Championship. TOP TWENTY
Results for the National Category TOP THREE
Results for the Historic Category TOP THREE
Results for the JuniorCategory TOP THREE
Results for the ‘Sunday Runners’ TOP THREE
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