Donegal duo take the honours at Galway International Rally
After a demanding two days when the drivers had to deal with some appalling conditions, Donegal cousins Declan and Brian Boyle took their first ever International rally win in the Colm Quinn BMW Galway International Rally in their Subaru Impreza WRC.
After completing the 13 stages of the opening round of the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Championship they had 25.5 seconds to spare over the reigning Tarmac Champion Garry Jennings with Rory Kennedy in the co-driver seat in their Impreza WRC.
On a shortened pair of stages completed three times on the first day, there was very little to choose between the top five overnight with Boyle holding a slender advantage over Jennings and Eugene Donnelly holding third place in the Mini WRC.
Donagh Kelly and Sam Moffett were battling it out for fourth place but only 25 seconds separated all of the drivers overnight. With the first stage on Sunday being the infamous and tricky Black Road drama was to be expected and it duly arrived, with Donnelly crashing out on the latter part of the stage with Boyle continuing to lead.
Over Lough Cutra there was very little change other than Jennings closing the gap to just 0.2 seconds behind Boyle, but on the following stage Bradys yard the rally swung Boyles way decisively when Jennings hit a flood and ended up in a field.
The excursion cost him 40 seconds and dropped him back to fourth place behind Donagh Kelly and Sam Moffett. Despite an excellent time on the Black Road stage from Jennings when he pared back Boyles lead by 13 seconds and moved back to second, he would still need Boyle to hit trouble to have a chance of victory.
Boyle held his nerve to take the maiden International win with Jennings second and Donagh Kelly edging Sam Moffett for third place on the final stage.