Kevin Gallagher 'over the moon' to retain National title

Kevin Gallagher climbed out of the Darrian on Sunday evening and the feeling was every bit as good as 12 months beforehand.

The Rathmullan man retained the National Rally crown after a superb weekend around the Donegal International Rally's 20 stages.

Gallagher was two minutes and 19.9 seconds in front of Damien Tourish when the sums were totted at the end of the final stage. Gallagher left the pack in the Darrian's slipstream with a stunning outing.

On Friday evening, he had a 10.3 second advantage after some testing stages that weren't to his liking.

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“If we get away clean and the weather behaves itself, we should be able to get a bit more time,” he predicted at Parc Ferme on Friday evening.

Gallagher, who had Ryan Moore as navigator in the Darrian T90 GTR, set some scorching times on the open roads of his home patch on Saturday.

Pettigo man Kevin Eves battled gamely until a mechanical issue ended the Corolla Twin Cam's involvement on Sunday.

By then, Gallagher already had the victory all but wrapped up.

“We're over the moon to get it,” Gallagher said after finishing tenth overall, pipping Gareth MacHale by 2.3 seconds.

“It's good. We had another good day on Sunday. We had over two minutes so were happy. We had a bit of a battle with Gareth MacHale there.

“We put a game plan together and we knew what we were doing from the start. The stages on Saturday were nice.”

Eves' withdrawal on High Glen brought Cloghan man Tourish into second.

Gallagher sailed through and had over two minutes to spare by the end with David Moffett the third national driver.

There were plenty of locals who finished well up in the national placings with John Bonner, Kyle McGettigan, Patrick McHugh and Johnny Jordan all inside the top ten.

Again, though, the story was about Gallagher, who might now go for a three-in-a-row in 2024.

He said: “Gary McPhillips done it twice in a row so we'll see about giving it another go.”