Ian White from Kilkenny, already the winner of three Hewison Autotest Championship rounds this season, added another yesterday when he finished ten seconds clear of Darren Quille in the Westmeath event at Rosenallis to increase his points lead, writes Richard Burke.
An early pylon penalty for White left him fighting from behind, but he went ahead just after the halfway mark and opened out the gap over the remaining five tests. Chris Grimes was another seven seconds down in third place.
Jason Ryan scored a five second victory over James Coleman in the Carrick-on-Suir Rallysprint at Waterford, while Kildare's Kevin O'Hara was best of the Irish contingent at Silverstone for the Walter Hayes Trophy, the last of the three major end-of-season Formula Ford races.
O'Hara, who won the Martin Donnelly Trophy at Kirkistown last month, took second position in his heat, but could only manage ninth in the semi-final. This left him down in eighteenth place on the starting grid for the Final, but he had a great drive through the field to finish fourth.
Fellow Kildareman James Roe was fifteenth, ahead of Keith Donegan from Meath. Niall Murray and Jordan Dempsey both retired during the semi-finals.
