The third round of the Irish Tarmac Championship has been won by Kris Meeke and his Swedish co-driver, Jonas Andersson.
Driving a Subaru Impreza WRC, they finished the 17 special stages with a 12.8 second winning margin over the reigning Irish Tarmac champions, Eugene Donnelly and Paul Kiely (Subaru WRC).
With an overnight advantage of some 25 seconds, Meeke didn’t take any undue risks and held a buffer over Donnelly through the morning stages.
Donnelly felt unwell and also had to contend with a charging Andreas Mikkelsen. At one point, the Norwegian was within 2.5 seconds of second spot.
In front of thousands of spectators, Meeke went into the final stage with a lead of just 12.1 seconds with Mikkelsen a further 6.8 seconds in arrears.
Meeke signed off in perfect fashion by setting the fastest time on the final stage to secure victory.
Mark Higgins made a spirited recovery and eventually finished fourth. Former four-time winner, Austin MacHale came home fifth ahead of his son, Gareth, who lost five minutes with a puncture.
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