Following last gasp defeats in the Lighthouse Rally in Fethard two years ago, and the Courtown Single Stage last year, the Goreyman must surely never have contemplated yet another agonising second place this time around.

But, in came to pass in the form of Ardfinnan man Jimmy Lambert, trounced in no uncertain fashion by James in last month’s Single Stage Rally.

On this occasion, Tipperary’s finest forced his Escort out in front on the final stage in dramatic fashion, inflicting a defeat on the road this time for James, instead of one that related to some last-minute departure from the road.

With trusty sidekick Ron Guha alongside him, James had been quickest on the opening stage, recording a time of 10 minutes 36 seconds three seconds faster than Fermanagh’s Philip Shaw, eight seconds ahead of Lambert.

Though some claimed Willie O’Dwyer was even quicker than that trio on the opening ten-mile stretch, the Kilkenny man’s Metro never made it to service, so we’ll never know.

His time, whatever it was, will always remain unofficial.

Others to depart the rally in the opening exchanges were Willie Carroll, Noel Redmond, Joe Curran, Shay White and unluckily, Larry Delaney, who went out in the familiarisation run.

Lambert pulled back that eight-second deficit on Stage 2, improving his first stage time by a mammoth 15 seconds.

Despite Shaw clocking his quickest time yet of 10:37, the Northerner was left three seconds down on the South-Eastern duo as James and Lambert went into the final stage all square on top of the leaderboard with a time of 21:13.

The final stage was to prove the decisive one, with Lambert lamping through the dark as if it didn’t exist.

It may have been a case of more lights being on in Newbawn than on Grafton Street, but that mattered little to the pugnacious Premier County native, as he thundered through the final night stage in 10 minutes, 31 seconds the second best time of the day, and crucially, 14 seconds better than James, costing the Wexfordian another December Rally.

James himself managed to edge out Shaw himself by a further three seconds, earning second spot ahead of the Fermanagh driver by a margin of six seconds.

For Lambert, partnered by James Coleman, it was a sweet victory.

“It was a good run,” he said with almost total underestimation, “The notes came right, the tyre choice was perfect.

“It was certainly a good day for me! My last victory was in Carrick-on-Suir years back. Hopefully, now that we’re on a roll, we can keep on winning!”

As for the vanquished James, it was a case of blood, sweat, and a near-miss: “I drove my heart out on that last stage I can’t understand it.

“I didn’t think there was a second left in it. I drove as hard as I could and kept it tidy.”

Philip Shaw recorded a creditable third, but couldn’t continue the Northern-dominance of Single Stage and Christmastime rallies in Wexford.

Shaw commented: “I knew I wasn’t going to catch the local boys in front. The nearest car behind was twenty seconds back. There was no point in wrecking the car.”

Carlow’s John Nolan, partnered by John Smithwick, missed out on the podium positions in fourth place overall, but still claimed victory in Class 13.

It was all the more pleasing for Smithwick to succeed, remembering what happened at the Lighthouse Rally in 1999, when an upset stomach cost him his concentration and potential glory.

Nolan was one place overall ahead of Kerryman Thomas Randels in fifth again, consolation for him was victory in Class 14.

“I was hoping to move up to fifth place on the last and hopefully get a class win, so I’m happy about the day,” enthused the Escort driver and what a day it was for Ford’s most durable machine.

The first five on the final leaderboard were all Escorts making a mockery of the manufacturer’s decision to scrap the model at the turn of the Millennium.

The final non-Escort home belonged to Meath couple James and Ann Foley, whose Civic came in 73 seconds behind the winner.

There were six class wins for Wexford the partnership of Ray Martin and Stephen Caffrey claimed Class 1 in their Swift, beating the Suzuki of fellow Wexfordian Kevin O’Donoghue by three seconds, the identical cars almost having identical times.

Class 3 went to Thomas O’Rourke with John O’Rourke alongside him who decimated the rest of his class to finish seventh overall.

The O’Rourke combination also won Group N, with 57 seconds to spare over Ranelagh’s Willie Fannin on the same day Fannin’s neighbour Ken Doherty was trounced in snooker’s UK Championship Final.

The local Stafford combination went supernova in Class 9.

James M and James F Stafford saw their Nova finish 11th overall to claim the class victory.

There was a Wexford 1-2-3 in Class 10, with Lar Murphy and Ian O’Leary in their Escort Mk II dispatching both John Kehoe and Paul Cloke’s finest efforts.

The Wexford town combination of Mark and Derek Kennedy worked the oracle to scoop Class 11, with Pat Dunne and Paddy Moloney doing enough late on to clinch Class 12 by eleven seconds from Cavan’s Ollie O’Reilly.

Other class winners included:

Class 2 - Vivian Noone/Jim O'Brien - Tipperary
Class 4 - Willie Fannin/Brian Duggan - Dublin/Kerry
Class 5 - James Fogarty/Stephen Fogarty - Kilkenny
Class 6 - Thomas Lawless/Brian Sharkey - Louth
Class 7 - Joe Curran/Ollie Garry - Meath
Class 8 - Padraig Price/David Nooney - Westmeath
Class 13 - John Nolan/John Smithwick - Carlow
Class 14 - Thomas Randles/Diarmuid Lynch - Kerry

There was victory in Group A for Thomas Lawless of Louth, who had six seconds to spare in his Civic from Peugeot-driving Fermanagh man Gary Jennings.

A successful and exciting rally finished under a cloud however.

Joe Stafford, a 45-year-old Wexford Motor Club member from Gusserane and who lived on the stage route, took ill on the journey back to Rally Headquarters in Rosslare having finished the stage in Newbawn.

Despite the best efforts of ambulance crews - who on returning back from rally duty were on the scene almost immediately Joe sadly failed to recover.

As a mark of respect, all post-rally activity was cancelled once the final results were posted.

Never have the scenes after a rally been so emotional, with most people left stunned by the news particularly as Joe was such a well-known and popular individual, who will be sadly missed.

All at Wexford Motor Club wish to extend their deepest sympathy to Joe’s family.

Prize-giving will now take place in the New Year.

Despite the obvious problems in the UK that left rallying in limbo for most of the year, there’s no doubt that this all-Irish event was a success to match that of last month’s Single Stage, and 2002 promises to be a lot busier.

With the two annual two-day events the Hillclimb in April and regular two-day rally in September - already in the planning stages, comes news that another one-day rally has been granted to Wexford Motor Club.

Motorsport Ireland officials have rubber-stamped a Single Stage Rally to take place in County Wexford next June.

World Cup fever will be in full swing at the time, but that shouldn’t prevent thousands coming out to witness another exciting day’s rallying in the South-East.

If it in any way compares with last weekend’s extravaganza, it should be some contest.

For Lambert, it was the best Christmas present his career could ever ask for.

 1 JIMMY LAMBERT / JAMES COLEMAN   Tipperary ESCORT 2000      31:44 
 2 DAVID JAMES / RON GUHA          Wexford   ESCORT BDX 2000  31:58 
 3 PHILIP SHAW / DEREK BRENNIGAN   Fermanagh ESCORT 2000      32:04 
 4 JOHN NOLAN / JOHN SMITHWICK     Carlow    ESCORT 2000      32:34 
 5 THOMAS RANDLES / DIARMUID LYNCH Kerry     ESCORT MKII 2400 32:46 
 6 JAMES FOLEY / ANN FOLEY         Meath     CIVIC 1800       32:59 
 7 THOMAS O'ROURKE / JOHN O'ROURKE Wexford   ASTRA GSI 1998   33:08 
 8 THOMAS LAWLESS / BRAIN SHARKEY  Louth     CIVIC 1600       33:12 
 9 GARY JENNINGS / JAMES O' BRIEN  Fermanagh PEUGEOT 106 1600 33:18 
10 MARK KENNEDY / DEREK KENNEDY    Wexford   CORSA 1600       33:20