Ballymena's Dominic McNeill scored a sensational victory to win the Courtown Hotel Wexford Forestry Rally, after having quarter of an hour's worth of penalties wiped out at the end of the event. McNeill had suffered crippling time penalties for service irregularities with a third of the rally remaining, but after California-based Seamus Burke returned to Courtown just before seven apparently holding the status of winner, officials decided to strip the Northerner of the penalty points, giving him the margin needed to sneak a dramatic and extremely unlikely win.
McNeill was lying 14 minutes 22 seconds behind Burke at the end of the nine stages, but after the final traversal of Askamore and the return to Courtown, race chiefs had a change of heart, handing the Northern Ireland driver a 38-second victory. Burke hadn't planned on taking part in the rally in the first place, but made last-minute arrangements after hearing about the event whilst on holiday from California. The Omagh-born driver had been based in Enniscorthy for many years, before settling on the west coast of America. He returns Stateside with the runners-up trophy - still quite a feat after knocking Eamonn Boland back to third.
The local star had won the last four Wexford Stages Rallies and finished a creditable 23rd in last month's Network Q Rally of Great Britain - the fifth best driver outside of the major world teams. Boland eventually finished 104 seconds down on McNeill, 56" behind Burke. John Donnelly ended the day in fourth, one place ahead of Niall Driver. Earlier, almost half the top ten from the opening two stages crashed out soon after their first service in Kildavin. Second-placed John McCarthy, Dermot Kelly in third, fourth-placer Seamus Burke and Noel Driver in joint tenth all failed to make it back intact to the next service, after Stage Six.
OVERALL POSITIONS
1 Dominic McNeill/Francis Regan Ballymena Escort Cosworth
2 Seamus Burke/Brian Sharpe California Mitsubishi Evo5
3 Eamonn Boland/Damien Morrissey Wexford Subaru WRC
4 John Donnelly/Greg McCarthy Ballymena/Cork Escort Cosworth
5 Niall Driver/Francis Corrigan Wicklow Mitsubishi Evo6
6 Martin Byrne/Stephen Byrne Wicklow Ford Fiesta
7 David James/Ron Guha Wexford/Dublin MkII Escort
8 Darren Dagge/Graham Dagge Wicklow Escort
9 Michael Nevin/Mark Kane Offaly Escort
10 Ray Benskin/Peadar Walsh Cork Escort
Filed by Shane Murray
