According to unofficial timekeeping carried out by each navigator, Boland took the honours by three minutes and two seconds, ahead of the Dorset combination of Steve Hendy and Aled Davies.

Boland, assisted by his literal right-hand-man Damien Morrissey - Boland's Subaru WRC S7 is a left-sided drive - ate up time on the field in virtually every single stage, and was increasing his lead right up to the finish.

Welshman Bob Fowden came in third, with the notes displayed here at the scrutineering base at Rosslare Sports Centre by pacekeeper Jerry Hynes, showing them 42 seconds down on Hendy.

Tim Ball did tremendously to drag himself up to fourth, but both he and navigator Rob Watson feel their final stage time of 5'03" may have been miscalculated - even a 39-second drop would still give them the edge over Hereford veteran John Price.

David James has provisionally taken a more-than-creditable sixth spot.

The Gorey speedster's new partner in the Escort BDX, Jim Crowe, has the team covering the sixteen stages in a time of one hour, 39 minutes and four seconds - seven seconds swifter than Aaron McHale's time, as calculated by the Dubliner's navigator Elva Roe.

Elva was sitting in for McHale's regular number two Damien Connolly.

Not such good news in the overall standings for the team of Tom Holton and Ron Guha.

Big Ron reckons their Celica lost around four minutes on the final stage due to an unwanted late excursion from the beaten track.

However, their performance may have been enough to secure second in Class 8.

Final Leaderboard - Provisional

 1 Eamonn Boland/Damien Morrissey    Wexford    Subaru WRC S7      1:31:59
 2 Steve Hendy/Aled Davies           Dorset     Escort Cosworth    1:35:01
 3 Bob Fowden/Jerry Hynes            Wales      Mitsubishi Lancer  1:35:43
 4 Tim Ball/Rob Watson               England    Darrian T90        1:37:59
 5 John Price/Caroline Price         Hereford   Metro 6R4          1:38:39
 6 David James/Jim Crowe             Gorey      Ford Escort BDX    1:39:04
 7 Aaron McHale/Elva Roe             Dublin     Mitsubishi Lancer  1:39:11