Double disaster for Ireland's latest rally star on the final two stages of the opening day of Rally Ireland left 25 year old Gareth MacHale in his Sanyo Air Conditioners Ford Focus in second place last night behind the Eskra Toyota Corolla of Tarmac champions Eugene Donnelly and Paul Kiely, with five more stages remaining today to decide this country's candidate event for a round of next year's World Rally Championship.
Just a week ago, the Rathcoole man and his co-driver, Paul Nagle from Killarney, finished sixth in the Mexican round of the World series on only their second rally at that level, beating the works Focus of double World Champion Marcus Gronholm, and yesterday, at the wheel of an older version of the same model normally driven by his father Austin, he set a cracking pace.
MacHale led from the start, building up a 38 second lead during the first four stages, but when a downpour swamped the day's last two tests, a broken windscreen heater caused the car badly to mist up, so that he could barely see out, and Donnelly slashed 20 seconds from his advantage.
Worse was to come when his engine stalled at the start of the day's final stage near Irvinestown, with 28 seconds gone before it fired up again, leaving his Maghera opponent with a thirteen seconds lead overnight.
These two were in a class of their own, with Wexford driver Eamonn Boland more than a minute behind in third place in his Focus, while Australian Chris Atkinson, the Subaru works driver who finished one place behind MacHale in Mexico, was fourth and held a clear lead of more than two minutes in the Group N Production class in a Subaru Impreza.
Production class contenders Garry Jennings and Shaun Gallagher both had gearbox trouble on their Lancer Evos, and were just outside the top ten, while National Group N champion Mike Curran was Atkinson's nearest rival in seventh overall.
On the opening stage near Ballyshannon, Swedish World Championship star Daniel Carlsson was second best, 15 seconds down on the young Dubliner, but a puncture on the next stage south of Castlederg cost his Mitsubishi Lancer WRC four minutes, although he had recovered to sixth last night.
The retirement list included Frenchman Nicolas Bernardi in his Group N Lancer, with a mixture of electrical and transmission problems, with Mullingar driver George Tracey another casualty when his Peugeot 206WRC slid off the road.
Today's five stages in Leitrim and Sligo complete the rally, which will finish at Sligo Town Hall at 3 o'clock, with Donnelly determined to add another to his list of major victories, while MacHale and Nagle would love to complete a week to remember in their rally careers by scoring their first International win.
RALLY IRELAND AT SLIGO/ENNISKILLEN (OVERNIGHT POSITIONS AFTER 6 STAGES):
1 Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Toyota Corolla WRC) 1h 24m 41.8s,
2 Gareth MacHale/Paul Nagle (Ford Focus WRC) 1h 24m 55.2s,
3 Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Ford Focus WRC) 1h 26m 06.6s,
4 Chris Atkinson/Glenn MacNeall (Subaru Impreza Gp N) 1h 27m 59.7s,
5 Kenny McKinstry/James O'Brien (Subaru Impreza WRC) 1h 29m 34.4s,
6 Daniel Carlsson/Jonas Andersson (Mitsubishi Lancer WRC) 1h 29m 49.3s,
7 Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Subaru Impreza WRC) 1h 30m 14s,
8 Mike Curran/Fabian McShane (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo Gp N) 1h 30m 15.3s,
9 Aaron MacHale/Gerard McMonagle (Toyota Corolla WRC) 1h 32m 52.7s,
10 Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell (Ford Focus WRC) 1h 33m 22.7s.