The 2007 Cork 20 International Rally was blessed with 3 WRC regulars Loeb, Sordo and Hirvonen out for some pre Rally Ireland testing. The last round of the 2007 Irish tarmac Championship still had the overall title battle between Higgins and Donnelly to be decided.

As expected loeb was fastest out of the blocks with Sordo second and Hirvonen third, Donnelly was 1.6 sec's up on Higgins. Stage 2 saw Hirvonen stop to change a puncture dropping him down the field, but in turn allowing him to get on with testing instead of battling with his usual sparring partners. Donnelly had the comfort of a points lead in the championship. Trying out new setup's on the S12 Subaru now owned and run by Derek McGarrity , following Higgins home would be enough for him to take the Title.

By the end of Day 1 Loeb had put his Citroen Team mate Sordo in his place to the tune of 1minute and 30sec's,  Hirvonen had climbed back to 6^th overall consistently 3^rd fastest but not quiet on the pace of the Citroen's, but ahead of Higgins who in turn was 5.1sec's up on . Loeb had put his Citroen Team mate Sordo in his place to the tune of 1minute and 30sec's. The Group N lead was held by Colm Subaru, He had enjoyed his day attacking hard, 44 sec's to the better of Mitsubishi Evo 9 driver Owen Murphy.

Day 2 start with business as usual for the WRC rivals, they all seemed to have been trying very hard even with conditions that were very slippy, with one eye on the Championship Donnelly Dropped 19sec's to the Subaru of Higgins. Colm Murphy doing much the same in Group N backing off to look after his car in the process taking his second Class Title.

At the finish Eugene Donnelly and Paul Kiely in their Reid Motorsport Backed Subaru had done enough in finishing 4^th to take the Global Group Tarmac Championship title, Mark Higgins finishing third behind the Works Citroens.

Who would bet against Sebastien Loeb on Rally Ireland later in the year, He seems to have the measure of the bumpy Irish lanes with another display of blinding pace finishing 2min's 21.5sec's up on Dani Sordo.