Monaghan trucker Niall Maguire and co-driver James O’Reilly won the Lady Gregory Hotel Galway Summer Rally in Gort despite suffering a puncture on the last of nine stages.

The event which is a round of the Parkway West Coast Championship and the Sligo Pallets Border Championship looked over as a contest until Maguire’s late, late drama.

At the start of the final test they had a one minute 12 lead over second placed Gary Kiernan and Ryan Moore when the near disaster flat left them limping to the finish. Behind them the interrupted stage saw the next group of drivers get the fastest time set by Paddy McVeigh. However it was just short of the time required for Kiernen to overtake the Monaghan man who hung on to win by 4.7 seconds to claim the victory.

Gary Kiernan and Ryan Moore eventually had to settle for second with Paddy McVeigh andGary McElhinney a further 2.4 seconds behind in third.
It was a good day for the Maguire family with Niall’s son Shane taking the Group N category with Mac Kierans on the notes.

Meanwhile, Paul Curley, and navigator Jason Ollernshaw who flew home from Canada especially for the event were crowned best Galway Motor Club crew and took the Ger Conroy Memorial Cup for the first time.

The Historic category was won by father and son, Niall and Cathal Keane with Michael Boyle taking the Junior category.

GALWAY MC LADY GREGORY HOTEL SUMMER STAGES RALLY AT GORT, CO GALWAY
1 Niall Maguire/James O’Reilly (Impreza WRC) 61m 55s,
2 Gary Kiernan/Ryan Moore (Escort) 62m 00s,
3 Paddy McVeigh/Gary McElhinney (Impreza WRC) 62m 02s,
4 Brian Brogan/Damien McGettigan (Escort) 62m 11s,
5 Damien Toner/Denver Rafferty (Escort) 62m 14s,
6 Adrian Hetherington/Ronan O’Neill (Escort) 62m 33s,
7 Daniel Cronin/Shane Buckley (Lancer Evo) 62m 37s,
8 Paul Purtill/Paul Kelly (Escort) 62m 47s,
9 Paul Curley/Jason Ollerenshaw (Impreza) 62m 47s,
10 Russell Woods/Martin Byrne (Escort) 62m 58s.