Meeke counting the cost of rally Ireland

Motorsport

Monday, September 03, 2007

By Sammy Hamill

There was only one question on the lips of everyone as Kris Meeke stood on top of the podium at the end of the PWT Ulster International - will we see him in Rally Ireland come November?

The answer is he doesn't know. Meeke desperately wants to be part of Ireland's first World Championship rally but, as always, it will depend on funding.

It will cost close to £40,000 to run a competitive car like the DMG Subaru S11 in which he annihilated the opposition on the Irish Tarmac and British championship event at the weekend, and the money doesn't exist at the moment.

"I wish I could say that I will be doing Rally Ireland, but I just don't know. Right now it is probably no," said the 27-year-old as he and co-driver Paul Nagle wiped the champagne from their eyes at the Armagh finish. "I don't have access to that kind of money."

It will a travesty if Meeke doesn't make the November line-up. Despite it being just his third-ever drive on tarmac in a full WRC car, and his second victory in a row, he proved yet again that he is far and away Ireland's No 1 driver.

He beat the Subaru S12 of triple Tarmac champion Eugene Donnelly by close to three minutes on what was largely a sprint rally, setting fastest times on 13 of the 16 stages - and the scary thing is, he rarely strayed outside what he calls his "comfort zone".

"I didn't take any chances and drove each stage at a pace I felt comfortable with," he said. "It was a question of doing what I felt was right for each stage.

"Could I have gone faster? Yes, if I had been pushed. But at the same time I was conscious of the fact that Pirelli had given me the chance to do this rally and I had to being the car home safely.

"As well as that, the finger has been pointed at me in the past, accusing me of losing concentration when I've been in front, and I wanted to show once and for all I can stay focused. I just drove every stage as it came and didn't think about whether I was two minutes of two seconds in front."

But he added: "This game is easy when it all clicks. The car was great, the team worked well and it was just about a perfect package."

On the other hand, Donnelly, who had won the Ulster in the previous two years, talked about it being a "demoralising" defeat.

"I've been beaten before and I'll be beaten again, but it is demoralising when even halfway through the rally you realise there isn't even a glimmer of hope of winning," he said.

"It simply didn't work for us and it is a long time since I felt that bad on a rally. Yes, we got good points and we'll go to Cork in a strong position to with the Tarmac championship for a fourth time, but that's not a lot of compensation when you've been beaten as comprehensively as this."

But, thanks to Meeke and Mark Higgins' strong fourth place in his production Subaru, it isn't entirely over yet. Donnelly is now nine points clear, but with bonus points available in the final round when Higgins will be back in the bright yellow S11 that Meeke made such good use of, there may yet be a twist in the tail.

Results: 1 Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle (Subaru Impreza) 1 hr 54 mins 31.5 secs; 2 Eugene Donnelly and Paul Kiely (Subaru Impreza) + 2 mins 42.0 secs; 3 Eamonn Boland and Francis Regan (Subaru Impreza) + 4 mins 44.5 secs; 4 Mark Higgins and Rory Kennedy (Subaru Impreza N) + 5 mins 48.1 secs; 5 Gwyndaf Evans and Huw Lewis (Mitsubishi Lancer N) 6 mins 34.7 secs; 6 Colm Murphy and Ger Loughrey (Subaru Impreza N) + 8 mins 57.2 secs; 7 Phillip and Simon Morrow (Mitsubishi Lancer N) + 11 mins 00.1 secs; 8 James Cullen and Reba Graham (Mitsubishi Lancer N) + 11 mins 33.7 secs; 9 Conrad Rautenbach and Dave Senior (Citroen C2) + 12 mins 39.2 secs; 10 Sebastian Ling and Aled Rees (Mitsubishi Lancer N) + 12 mins 50.6 secs.