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 The UK's best took on the WRC regulars in what turned out to be one of the most difficult tarmac rallies the WRC has experienced, and they did the spectators proud.
Guy Wilks maintained a solid pace on stages covered in mud and standing water to come home the highest UK finisher in sixth place. Wilks overcame day one punctures to hold a 3 minute plus gap between him and the Stobbart Focus of Matthew Wilson through the 2nd and 3rd legs, to record his best ever finish at this level.
The PWRC class was won by Niall McShea in his GT Xtreme, Kumho Tyres backed Subaru, a measured drive saw McShea take the class win and 10th overall after the class leader Mark Higgins crashed off on stage 16.
Irish Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly found his new Skoda Fabia WRC to be underpowered in such strong company. He didn’t last long suffering a broken driveshaft on stage 4.
Andrew Nesbitt perhaps suffering from a lack of match fitness, only competing on a few events in recent years never really found the pace we know he has.Nesbitt spent most of the early stages trying different tyres and set ups on the McKinstry Motorsport Subaru WRC only to crash off on stage 11 whilst in 14th place overall.
Irish hopes were flying high after the stage 1 Super special at Stormont, when Kris Meeke posted 3rd fastest time in his DMG sport S12 Subaru, only beaten by Loeb and Gronholm. It was not to be though after running around 8th overall Kris tangled with the scenery once to often and due to Insurance reasons was unable to start leg 2 under the super rally rules.
Roy White well known for his exploits in Group N cars was competing in his new MG S2000, the MSD developed car experienced some reliability problems on its first outing, but Roy managed to bring it home in 42nd overall.
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