Killarney’s Paul Nagle collects Spanish victory

The Kerry/Tyrone partnership of Kris Meeke and his Killarney co-driver Paul Nagle have won the ‘Rally Spain’ in the latest round of the world championships held in Catalunya last weekend. Paul Nagle is renowned as a key navigator in the rally circuit helping to guide Meeke to victory on several occasions in the past. But this latest win was is their second of the season, adding to the victory in Mexico last March.

The pair were third at the end of Friday’s action, which was held on the gravel stages, but they soon took control setting an epic time during the first stage on the asphalt surface on Saturday, pushing them into a lead of 12 seconds. They won every stage on Sunday, apart from the last, to seal a sweet victory. By the finish the ‘Team Citroen’ drivers had extended the overall margin of victory to 28-seconds over Sebastian Ogier.

Paul has partnered Dungannon’s Kris Meeke since 2009 and the pair have enjoyed many successful days on the word stage prior to Sunday’s Spanish win which ended a frustrating run since the Mexico win.

Paul made his professional rally debut in 1997 and his big break came in 2001 when he became the Peugeot Super Cup champion co-driver gaining experience of competing at venues around the world.

On Sunday night Kris Meeke took to Twitter to say: “It’s not about how many times you get knocked down, it’s more about how many times you get back up,” which is a measure of just how much the win means to both drivers.