Kumho Celebrates Donnelly’s Third Championship

Irish rally ace Eugene Donnelly and co-driver Paul Kiely have wrapped up their third successive Pirelli Irish Tarmac Rally Championship title in fine style. Their dominant overall victory last Saturday (2 September) in the Philip White Tyres Ulster Rally earned them maximum points and an unassailable lead in the series with one round to go. The Kumho-backed pairing, in their nine-year old, ex Didier Auriol, Toyota Corolla WRC, held the lead after Friday’s night stages but the right choice of Kumho wet tyres for the heavy rain on Saturday morning helped Donnelly to open up an ever-increasing gap: “I think when it got drier it was even slippier due to the mud pulled out on the second runs, but I really enjoyed the rally.

The conditions made it such a challenge,” commented Donnelly. The win, Donnelly’s second Ulster title in a row and his fifth major win of the season, puts him 19 points clear of Eamonn Boland who finished second on Saturday..