Damien Tourish and co-driver Domhall McAlleny recorded their first ever Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge Ireland victory on the City North Hotel ALMC Stages Rally on Sunday, the fourth round in the one-makes series.
Owen Murphy and James O'Brian meanwhile were pleased to finish second with a car that was down on power all day and, winner of rounds one and three, Brendan Cumiskey, with co-driver Conor Foley, finished third following an eventful rally.
ALMC Stages is the only one-day event in this year's Irish Mitsubishi Championship calendar and featured a three-stage loop, run three times, which provided the capacity entry - which included nine Evo Challenge teams - with a competitive distance of 129 kilometres.
Based 30 kms north of Dublin, the event started on Sunday morning from its sponsor's hotel, the overnight rain making grip on the first loop of stages very unpredictable – most drivers opting for wet-weather tyres.
Having not driven the car for two months since round three in Killarney - whilst the team had been trying to cure an ECU fault - Murphy/O'Brien surprised even themselves, when the clock showed them ahead of Tourish/McAlleny by two seconds. However, on stage two, positions were reversed, when Murphy's car developed a misfire.
With stage three cancelled due to a local farmer not being as happy as he could be about the rally passing his land, crews returned to service with stories of the slippery conditions. Stanley Ballentine/Richard Hyland were the first to be caught out, when their car slid off the road on the very first corner and became beached on the edge of a ditch for nearly a minute. They claimed that they would have got out to push, but they didn't like the look of the nettles that surrounded the car!
Michael Murray/Aiden Mannion were slowed when their car's differential pump stopped working during the first stage, whilst Tom Curley/Brian Miller reported to have clipped a bank in SS2, although Curley was delighted that the electrical gremlins that had plagued him for rounds two and three had finally disappeared.
