Dominant Donnelly retains title

Eugene Donnelly dominated this weekend's Rally Isle of Man.

Donnelly and co-driver Paul Kiely retained the title, finishing the 22-stage event with a winning margin of four minutes and 21.6 seconds from Eamonn Bolan and Francis Regan.

The controversial Guy Wilks was third overall and the first British Rally Championships contender home.

Wyn Humphreys now leads that series.

Paul Bird held off the late challenge of 18-year-old Norweigan Andreas Mikkelsen to claim fourth place, while Gwyndaf Evans was sixth overall and second in the BRC class.

Noel and James Kelly had the honour of being the top local finishers in 14th place in their Mitsubishi Lance Evo VI,

Despite mechanical problems which had earlier forced him to retire, Manxman David Higgins took advantage of event rules to restart and take 12th place and a point in the BRC standings.

Brother Mark did the same after a crash on Friday but was down in 35th.

Castletown's Mark Cubbon and co-driver Jon Turnbull came home in 18th, with Richard Curphey and Andrew Holmes 21st.

There was a Manx 1-2-3 in the Trophy Rally - Rob Watson and Bruce Craig winning by 56.4 seconds from George Collister and Janet Craine with Dave Corris and Mark Perryman in third.

The Historic Rally was won by Richard Tuthill and John Bennie in their Porsche, followed by runners-up Gareth Lloyd and Ryland James and third placed David Stokes and Guy Weaver.

After his success, Donnelly was delighted but admitted it was not without difficulty (audio file attached):