THE Clonakilty husband and wife crew of Eamonn and Lisa McCarthy (Honda Civic) were certainly a class act in the Cork '20' Rally – they secured a start-to-finish victory in Class 11F.

In terms of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, Eamonn netted an impressive third in the Drivers' section of the Modified category with Lisa taking second in the co-drivers' section. In addition, they finished first in Class M1.

Naturally, both were delighted with the way their ITRC season panned out.

‘If someone told us at the start of the season it would turn out this way, yes, for sure, we would have taken it with both hands,’ Eamonn said.

‘The pace on Saturday between ourselves and Anthony O'Brien and Martin Laverty (their Derry rivals in the Modified category, who were competing in a rear wheel drive Toyota Corolla) was unbelievable – we were both about two minutes ahead in our classes.’

Throughout the two days the McCarthy's Honda Civic never skipped a beat and with a 5.9-second lead on the opening stage they went on to finish two minutes and 23.6 seconds ahead of Macroom's Barry O'Brien and his Rossmore co-driver Declan Buttimer, also in a Honda Civic.

With such a strong lead it is often more difficult to stay focussed but they utilised the experience gained in events like the Donegal and Ulster rallies to seal a successful weekend.

Having made a wrong tyre choice on Saturday morning, O'Brien/Buttimer moved into second after SS5 and had an untroubled run on the remaining four stages.  On Sunday, they experienced some brake troubles before taking second in Class 11F.

Elsewhere, Lyre's Tim O'Donovan (Toyota Corolla) and Inchydoney's Packie McCarthy (Toyota Corolla) were very popular winners of Class 11R where they finished one minute and 27.4 seconds ahead of their nearest rivals. It was probably the most successful event for West Cork crews this season as two other crews also netted class wins – Kilbrittain's Donal Dineen and Rosscarbery's Donal Keohane (Honda Civic) won Class 3 and Drimoleague's Gary Lordan/Alan O'Farrell (Honda Civic) were start to finish winners in Class 9.

This Saturday, Rosscarbery co-driver Alistair Wyllie will partner Tyrone's Ashley Dickson in the Dogleap Rally, where they will debut a new Ford Fiesta Rally2. The event is based at the Shackleton Centre in Ballykelly near Derry.