Crosbie Cedars Hotel Wexford Rally 2000 - 16-17 Sept 00

Posted: September 19, 2000 1:00 PM

Taking into consideration he gained an advantage on average of twelve seconds every stage, one can never really say he was ever under any major pressure.
He turned an overnight lead of two minutes, seven seconds into a winning margin of 2:58, and took fastest times on every single stage, barring Stage Nine - Sunday's morning's opener. This little abberation of a perfect record occured when Mercer bettered him - by one second.

Any minor problems the Wexfordman had with his Subaru did not affect his performance, and if the truth be known, he was easing off on most of Sunday's stages.

Had he tried harder, it's certain he could have added another minute to the considerable winning margin.

Another aspect of this win was that Eamonn's car was of 1998 vintage, which he's using while his 2000-spec Subaru undergoes a major facelift brought about by an over-amorous embrace with a ditch some weeks back. Not bad for a T-car! You can be well sure a certain E Jordan would be happy if any of his T-car could leave Ferraris or McLarens so far in its wake.

The rest of the top ten seemed to space themselves out a bit from their close overnight positions they were holding going into Sunday morning, with the closest trio of cars running from fourth to sixth - David Armstrong, Steve Hendy and Phil Henderson - who all finished within forty seconds of each other.
Killarney's Johnny O'Sullivan drove a very consistent two days, finishing is an extremely safe seventh place, eventually having over 1'20" to spare over Jon Tainton in eighth, enough to secure his second place in the Triton Showers South East Stages Rally Championship - but more about that anon.
Guy Woodcock and Trevor Culbert had a good old ding-dong battle to the end, with Woodcock eventually having a 17-second advantage at the finish.
There was consolation for those in eighth, ninth and tenth though.
Tainton's Evo5 took Group N, ahead of Waterford man John Sheehan's Subaru and Nigel Hickland in his Lancer.
Woodcock claimed the Formula 2 honours in his RS2000, and Trevor Culbert earned victory in Class 11A in his Escort.
Spare a thought though for Jimmy Lambert and Derek Smith in their MkII Escorts, who fought among the big boys for the whole weekend, only to come a cropper on the third last stage.

James Travers had a very impressive rally in his Ford Ka, winning the Triton Showers South East Stages Rally Championship - and Class 5. Travers pulled off the double with four class wins from four starts - the perfect record to earn the Kilkenny man and navigator Niall Keogh the biggest prize in South-East rallying.
For all these class wins and Championship successes, it was Boland and his navigator Damien Morrissey who stepped up to receive the biggest prize and adulation in the Crosbie Cedars Hotel at prize-giving.
There was no truth in the rumour that someone was passing around a bucket to buy a missile launcher to mysteriously nobble the seemingly-unstoppable Boland during next year's event.
Failing the purchase of such an instrument, Stephen Murphy is rumoured to be on standby with his newly-purchased helicopter, which we hear already came fitted with anti-aircraft missiles...
Considering that Boland's Subaru was a low-flying object, maybe this is the only weapon suited as Murphy will want to keep his record intact of five wins in a row.
Final leaderboard - PROVISIONAL

 1 Eamonn Boland/Damien Morrissey (Subaru Impreza WRC)...1:47:51
 2 Jon Mercer/Lyn Jenkins (Metro 6R4)....................1:50:49
 3 Steve Fleck/Tim Neal (Subaru Impreza 555).............1:52:39
 4 David Armstrong/Herbie Blackburn (Escort RS Cosworth).1:53:01
 5 Steve Hendy/Vanessa Cann (Escort RS Cosworth).........1:53:23
 6 Phil Henderson/Aled Davies (Metro 6R4)................1:53:41
 7 Johnny O'Sullivan/Pat Cashman (Ford Escort WRC).......1:54:26
 8 Jon Tainton/Aled Davies (Mit. Lancer EVO V)...........1:55:49
 9 Guy Woodcock/Hu Kent (Escort RS2000 Kit Car)..........1:56:39
10 Trevor Culbert/James Glynn (Escort 2.0)...............1:56:56