McHALE AT HOME WITH THIRD IN WORLD RALLY EXPERIENCE!

Posted: July 24, 2002 9:27 AM

Punchestown was just a short trip down the road from McHale's Rathcoole base and it was a relaxed day for everyone taking part including Austin, who was instrumental in building the 4km tarmac track around the racecourse perimeter.

Making his first appearance in Ireland for 10 years, McRae was delighted to compete against Ireland's top names and the Scot did not disappoint. McHale - with Newbridge's Brian Murphy on the notes in the Toyota Ireland Corolla WRC - and Irish rival, Andrew Nesbitt, rose to the challenge and set about to repeat last year's performance in which they took joint victory at the Kildare track.

In an event which saw the paddock thronging with celebrities such as Jim Corr of The Corrs band, Keith Duffy from Boyzone and champion jockey Richard Dunwoody, McHale quickly established himself as quickest of the Irish drivers behind McRae in the first run. He equalled his time in the second run as Nesbitt took a slight advantage and then in the third of six outings, again eclipsed the reigning Tarmac Champion.

Suspension problems delayed the five times Tarmac Champion in the fourth run, leaving McRae and Nesbitt clear to the end of the event. McRae finished the event in a time of 15m 14.4s, Nesbitt on 15m 28.4s and McHale on 15m 41.5s.

There was more good news for Austin's eldest son, Aaron who drove superbly to finish first in Group N and take15th overall.

Said Austin: "It was an excellent day and we were very pleased to have Colin McRae here and winning the event. Everything went well for us and we were level pegging with Andrew until we had a suspension problem midway through but we still finished third, which was a good enough result. It was a good day for Aaron winning Group N and the young lad's really coming on well."

The next event on both the Pirelli British and Toshiba Computers Irish calendar is the Manx International Rally in the Isle of Man next month on August 1/3, however, McHale has not committed to competing and will make a decision in due course.