Higgins captures Galway Rally

Date Published: 05-Feb-2008

FIRST blood and maximum championship points went to Mark Higgins while pre-race favourite Eugene Donnelly did not finish due to gearbox trouble during an eventful Safety Direct Galway International Rally at the weekend.

Sunday morning saw the crews leave under a veil of heavy rain and snow. Overnight leaderTim McNulty was first away with a 34 second lead over his nearest rival, Higgins, in a similar Impreza WRC.

Flooded roads with sleet and light snow greeted the drivers when they tackled the Ballymacward stage. Tim McNulty had wisely picked a Pirelli wet weather tyre with deep grooves to dispel the standing water.

He traversed the stage 5 seconds faster than Higgins and 10 seconds faster than Donnelly. Kevin Kelleher started fastest in Group N, 10 seconds up on Colm Murphy.

At the end of stage 9 the Galway crew of Pat Kelly and Martin Flynn were fourth in the national rally. Two Galway crews,Tom Gormally in a Civic and Tom Cahill in a Honda Integra were fighting for the lead in class 3.

When the cars entered service after three stages, Higgins had closed the gap on Tim McNulty to 18 seconds. Mechanical problems put paid to the rally for Colm Murphy, PJ McDermott and Niall Maguire, among others.

Higgins and McNulty traded seconds all day with the gap going from…..