Murphy & Nestor win Rentokil Initial Historic Car Stages Rally at Killarney
Despite having their lead slashed dramatically on the final stage, Owen Murphy and Anthony Nestor came out the winners by just one second in the Rentokil Initial Historic Car Stages Rally at Killarney. Their Sunbeam Lotus set best time on the opening stage, Moll’s Gap, and stayed in front all day with their advantage fairly constant at just under ten seconds for most of the first seven stages.
However, with darkness gathering for the second run through the Kilcummin section in the late afternoon, a tremendous effort by Escort crew Mark Falvey and James O’Brien beat the Cork driver’s time by 8.5 seconds, leaving just one second separating the two rivals at the finish.
Welshman Neil Williams and his Cork co-driver Anthony O’Sullivan were almost two minutes farther behind in third place, with two more drivers from Wales, Tomas Davies and Daniel Jones, taking fourth and fifth places.
The Donegal-Kerry pairing of Declan Gallagher and John McCarthy won the Modified class, for more recent cars.
Richard Meeke took a close win in the MEC Kilkenny Cup Sporting Trial at Mondello Park, a single mark ahead of Percy Pennefather, with Meeke continuing this season’s unusual run of each one of the six events so far having a different winner.
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