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The Cork "20" of 1998 was the first time Ian Greer took his Toyota Celica onto the finish ramp as winner of a round of the Toshiba Irish Tarmac Championship. He was to build on this achievement last weekend in Killarney. Much talk was of the favourite, and championship leader, Bertie Fisher. It was a bad start for Fisher however, clipping a rock on the first stage with the resulting puncture dropping him down the leaderboard. His bad luck was further compounded on Saturday evening
with power steering failure. Frank Meagher, an absentee from Irish rallying for some time, made a welcome return in his Escort WRC. Frank held second place for most of the opening day's action but suffered a broken driveshaft on Sunday morning and eventually crashed out in the closing stages.
Such is the popularity of rallying in Ireland at the moment, the stage through Molls Gap on Sunday was shortened because of crowd problems. Eamonn Boland in his Escort WRC, was the only real challenge that Greer had towards the end of the event. Greer did suffer a late scare when his intercom failed which slowed him slightly, but not enough to deprive him of victory. Ian Greer now leads the Toshiba Tarmac Championship by one point from four times champion Bertie Fisher. It appeared to be looking good for Bertie's fifth title having secured two wins in the first two outings, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that the title fight will go right to the last event in Cork in October. Next round is in Donegal on 18th to 20th of June.
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Motorsport Photography by Anthony Hunter (Copyright)
Story by Murph (Email)
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Round 2
Motorsport Photography by Anthony Hunter (Copyright)