Rob Duggan and Ger Conway produced one of the standout drives of the Killarney Towers Hotel Historic Rally on Saturday night, delivering a flat-out run over the Moll’s Gap night stage that will go down as one of the most memorable attacks in the event’s history.

The Ford Escort crew started the final test in third place, 34.7 seconds behind rally leaders and eventual winners Donagh Kelly and Rory Kennedy. With darkness falling Duggan and Conway went on the attack and were visibly committed from the start of the 18.6-kilometre stage.

The pair barely lifted on the climb and descent of the Gap, taking 29.5 seconds out of Kelly/Kennedy and reaching the finish line on the bumper of the leading BMW.

The effort was not enough to overturn the deficit, but it was a performance that will be talked about for years among local rally fans.

Duggan, the defending Modified champion, switched into the Historic division for the weekend after an opportunity arose to drive a full historic-spec Escort for the first time since 2019.

While disappointed to miss out on victory, he said he was satisfied with third overall on his return to the category.

Duggan said afterwards he was “happy to be back in a full historic car” and satisfied with third place, even if the final charge fell short.

Their result came 40 years after another famous piece of Moll’s Gap folklore, when Billy Coleman caught and passed his Opel team-mate Austin MacHale in similar night-time conditions, a comparison not lost on long-time followers of the event.

The late drama came after early favourites Kris Meeke and Noel O’Sullivan retired before the final run.

They had led the rally from the opening stage and built a cushion of one minute 19 seconds but that advantage disappeared when their MATS-prepared BMW M3 developed engine problems on the first run down Moll’s Gap.

That cost 43.5 seconds and while they limped back to service in Kenmare the engine was beyond repair and retired from the rally lead just before the final test.

That handed control to Kelly and Kennedy, who had been managing differential trouble earlier in the day.

Starting the night stage with 19.2 seconds in hand over John O’Donnell and Paddy Robinson, the Donegal crew held on to win by 1.5 seconds, securing back-to-back Historic Rally victories.

The result was also significant for Kennedy, who marked the drive with a tribute to the late Bertie Fisher.

Kennedy and Fisher won the Rally of the Lakes in 1990, also in a BMW M3.

O’Donnell and Robinson were another Donegal crew to impress. They set consistent top three times throughout the Kenmare loop and moved ahead of Duggan after SS3. Their run on the final stage was solid and enough to secure second place overall.

Their margin over Duggan ended at 3.7 seconds.

World Drift star Conor Shanahan, partnered by Andy Hayes finished fourth overall in his BMW M3.

This was Shanahan’s best result yet in historic rallying in what only his fifth start ever in the discipline.

Despite a moment on stage seven where they rubbed an Armco barrier protecting a lake edge the young Cork driver gained confidence as the day progressed and moved ahead of Fergus O’Meara on the repeat loop.

O’Meara and Brian Duggan finished fifth overall after a steady day that included an off-road moment on SS6.

The local man had been running fourth early in the rally but slipped back behind Shanahan after his excursion.

Stephen Greaney and Jonathan Folan brought their Toyota Corolla WRC home in sixth.
John Bonner / John Michael O’Donnell were the next-best Escort pairing, taking seventh overall and first in class after a solid, mistake-free run.

Michael McDaid and Denver Rafferty were close behind in eighth overall, just 8 seconds off Bonner’s pace.

Neil Williams with local co-driver John Falvey, another strong Escort crew finished ninth overall in what was Falvey’s first Historic rally finish.

Williams had been expected to challenge for the class win, but time lost in the first loop left him with too much to recover on the afternoon pass.

Tommy McDonagh and Paul Murphy completed the top ten 10 in another Ford Escort.

Belgian legend Patrick Snijers, driving alongside Davy Thierie, finished 11th in another M3. Snijers was competing on the event for the first time.

An ill-handling car in the morning cost valuable time but he was much more on the pace in the afternoon.

Alan Ring’s Subaru 555 retired on the final run with a gear-selector issue, only a few hundred metres from the finish.

It was a busy week for local BMW dealer Paul Ahern, who finished the rally in 27th overall with co-driver Kieran Murphy and fourth in the F4 class in their BMW M3.

Ahern also played a major role off the stages, hosting Friday’s triple BMW M3 E30 unveiling at Aherns BMW in Castleisland, where the MATS-built cars of Kris Meeke/Noel O’Sullivan and Shanahan/ Hayes were revealed to the public in one of the standout pre-event showcases