By Padraig Reddington
Donegal driver, Declan Gallagher, and his Killarney-based co-driver, John McCarthy have taken a convincing victory on the Germaine’s of Baltinglass Garda Síochána Motor Club Mini Stages Rally. The Toyota Starlet crew were fastest on four of the event’s six stages, and came home with 42.4 seconds in hand over their closest challengers, Jason Black and Karl Egan, who were also in a Starlet. The opening stage had seen Black and Egan to the fore, by 2.6 seconds, but Gallagher and McCarthy then went fastest on the next test, to move into the lead. It was a remarkable time by Gallagher, 10.3 seconds faster than Black, and left the overall margin at 7.7 seconds going into the first Service. Gallagher and McCarthy continued to pull away on every stage thereafter from Black and Egan, who were unable to respond. The victory will leave Gallagher and Murphy in a confident frame of mind ahead of the Donegal International Rally in two weeks time, where they are certain to be in the fight for Modified category honours.
Black and Egan had in turn been comfortably ahead of the rest of the field throughout the day, although the gap to third placed Mark Alcorn and James McNulty (Ford Escort RS) did narrow to 8.6 seconds on the final stage. The latter crew had been coming under pressure to hold off Kevin Eves and Chris Melly (Toyota Corolla GT Coupé) in the battle for the final podium position, but just held on to the place, by 2.9 seconds, despite having to contend with a misting windscreen on the final stage.
Jonathan Pringle (a former winner of the event) and Pierce O’Callaghan took fifth place in their Escort, 7.5 seconds ahead of Damian Toner and Michael Coady, also in an Escort, who came home sixth.
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