Galway Rally win gives Nagle his first international victory on Irish roads

PAUL Nagle’s win on Sunday’s Corrib Oils Galway International rally was his first international victory in the Republic of Ireland.

Despite a career that has earned the Aghadoe man the deserved title as Ireland’s most-successful motorsport competitor with major wins as far afield as Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, including five at World Championship level, he had never won a round of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship south of the border until now.

This season Nagle has joined forces with his former Citroen World Rally Team colleague Craig Breen. They entered the Galway International Rally in a Ford Fiesta R5 in an effort to keep match fit as the pair eye a return to the sport’s top level as soon as possible.

Nagle has won countless Irish rallies over the years but his first and only, up until Sunday, Irish Tarmac Championship win came alongside Kris Meeke on the 2007 Ulster International Rally. He is also a previous multiple winner of the West Cork Rally but in the days prior to that event gaining ITRC and international status.

On Sunday, Breen, with his Killarney co-driver Paul Nagle, dropped some time on the opening stage when they overshot a junction, leaving double Galway winners Garry Jennings and Rory Kennedy as the early leaders in their Impreza. Alastair Fisher and Gordon Noble set best time on stage two in their Fiesta, briefly giving them the lead, but Breen took over top place at the end of the first loop of three stages, just three tenths of a second ahead of Jennings.

The Fermanagh and Waterford rivals swapped positions twice more in quick succession before Jennings slid off the road and out of the rally, and Breen was never headed for the rest of the day and had a clean run to victory over the similar car of Fisher and Noble. The Tyrone crew now lead the series ahead of round two – the St Patrick’s weekend West Cork Rally.

Breen and Nagle opted to not register for the championship as they keep an eye on the bigger picture and a return to the WRC.

At the finish Nagle told onthepacenote.com\live that he has not ruled out an appearance in West Cork next month. “It has been a great day’s rallying and it is good to be back, it has been a rough few months for me. We might be in West Cork but whatever else happens on the world scene we will have to wait and see.”

Noel O’Sullivan from Muckross guided Jon Armstrong to a very respectable fourth overall in another Fiesta. The pair had not competed together since Rally de Catalunya, the Spanish round of the World Rally Championship in October 2017 but the Fermanagh driver is the current world E-sport virtual champion and their car carried DiRT Rally video game livery in Galway at the weekend.

Conor Murphy and Keith McCarthy retired their Honda Civic from fourth in the junior section on stage three.

Kevin and Colin O’Donoghue, Charlie and Johnny Hickey and Raymond Conlon and Damian Fleming were all non-starters in Galway.

Rally of the Lakes motorsport festival

KILLARNEY and District Motor Club is set to launch a new motorsport festival alongside the Rally of the Lakes this year. The county’s only two-day rally is celebrating its 40th anniversary this May and a range of separate events will run alongside the main rally.

Details will be revealed by the club in coming weeks but it is understood a separate demonstration rally will take place between the two runs of each stage catering for rally cars of historical importance that competed before 1990.

Kerry Motor Club has revealed more details of its April 7 Circuit of Kerry. The rally will feature nine stages over classic north Kerry roads. An accommodation incentive scheme, in association with the Banna Beach Hotel is in place in an effort to attract overseas crews with one well-known Welsh driver already committed. A new bonus points system for Top Pat West Coast Rally Championship contenders is set to be announced in the coming weeks too.

Kerry Sport Star Awards

COLIN O’Donoghue from Killarney was named as the 2018 Motorsport competitor of year at the Kerry Sport Star and Special Awards held at the Gleneagle Hotel on Friday night.

O’Donoghue was nominated for the Motorsport Ireland young driver of the year award last season after a string of top results including finishing third overall on the Killarney Historic Rally in December.

He said: “It’s nice to be recognised by my county for my achievements at doing what I love.”

GAA success for Kilcummin driver

WELL-KNOWN local rally driver and co-driver John McCarthy played a part in his GAA club’s All-Ireland intermediate final victory in Croke Park on Saturday.

McCarthy came off the bench halfway through the second half and contributed one point from play to ensure Kilcummin’s victory over Antrim’s Naomh Éanna.

Goodwood drive for Killarney man in London

LONDON-BASED Killarney man Mick Smith marked his first rally of the season with an outing at the Southdowns Rally on Saturday, based at the world famous Goodwood Race Circuit in Sussex, in his historic-specification Chrysler Avenger.