After one of the closest battles seen on the Jim Clark rally Eugene Donnelly and Paddy Toner took the win in their WRC Fabia by 23 seconds.

Starting from Edinburgh  the action was to be held on the 17 sealed surface stages around Duns in the Scottish Borders. Running over the Friday and Saturday of the 22^nd and 23^rd May, this years event included stages running late on Friday night meaning the crews would have to run in the dark for the last two stages. 

After the first nights charge the field was lead by Tim McNulty and David Moynihan in their Subaru Impreza closely followed by Donnelly and then Eamonn Boland/Michael Jo Morrissey. With just 15 seconds between the top three the day light stages of Saturday were set to be enthralling.

Donnelly set about the task of overhauling the competition straight away on Saturday, fastest on the first run through Edrom and winning all bar three of the days stages the WRC Fabia was amazing to watch on the dry tarmac.

The change at the top came in stage 14 with McNulty relegated to second unable to contain the blistering speed of his fellow countryman Donnelly.

Last year’s winner Eamonn Boland, alongside Michael Morrissey, just edged out another Irish crew, Gareth McHale and Brian Murphy in their Ford Focus, for third and fourth with brother Aaron MacHale rounding out the top 5. 

Results
1  Eugene Donnelly/ Paddy Toner                     Skoda Fabia WRC                            2:03:08.7       
2  Tim McNulty /David Moynihan                       Subaru Impreza WRC S12                2:03:31.9 
3  Eamonn Boland /Michael Jo Morrissey          Subaru Impreza WRC S12                2:05:25.6 
4  Gareth MacHale /Brian Murphy                     Ford Focus WRC                             2:05:29.2 
5  Aaron MacHale /Barry Goodman                   Ford Focus WRC 06                        2:10:35.3