Tarmac Rally Champion Chooses BFGoodrich

Following his fourth successive Irish Tarmac Rally Championship win Eugene Donnelly is set to continue his partnership with BFGoodrich in 2008. Donnelly and co-driver of five years, Paul Keilly, will be competing in a Subaru S12 run by SB Motorsports, a new team formed and staffed by rally specialists.

“We had our first test in the car towards the end of January,” said Donnelly. “We ran on muddy tarmac surfaces to get the set up tuned for the Galway Rally and the test went very well indeed. Unfortunately we had a couple of mechanical gremlins on the rally itself, the loss of hydraulic pressure in the gear-shift system finally forced us out. However the car handled superbly and the latest BFGoodrich tyres really worked well in the cold, wet conditions. Our great relationship with BFGoodrich means we have a lot of confidence in their products and can push the car from the outset. The new team certainly gelled very well and I’m very confident that we have the best package to defend our title.”

Andy Williamson, BFGoodrich sales manager, is also looking forward to the championship challenge. “Eugene’s performances last year were very strong. We’re proud of our strong record in the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship and are looking forward to more success with Eugene and Paul in 2008. It is also very encouraging to see the Group N result in Galway with Kevin Kelleher’s BFGoodrich shod Lancer taking him to a career best of fifth overall and first in group N.

BFGoodrich rally tyres are distributed to Irish Rally Championship contenders by Tom Halliday from Galway.