David James drops ball again....
Rally Report 7
Sunday, December 17th, 2000 - 5:10pm
Reporting team: John Dier, Will Downing - Courtown

A webwatcher from Yorkshire this time last year (Huddersfield to be exact) made the wry comment: "David James has dropped the ball again then!" in the aftermath of last year's Lighthouse Single Stage Rally inm Fethard-on-Sea, where the Goreyman's last stage crash gifted victory to Ulsterman Martin Taggart.

Twelve months on, and it's happened again - this time in the Courtown Hotel Single Stage Rally in the opposite corner of County Wexford, and in James' own patch.

Some substance on James' windscreen obstructed his vision - and to make things worse, the incessant rain - which was getting heavier - only exacerbated the situation.

This all culminated in car number 1 spinning, wiping out the six second lead James had held over another member of the Taggart clan, Terrance - Martin's big brother.

The Wexfordman's little unplanned excursion cost him at least 15 seconds, hence the title staying within the Taggart family's grasp by a margin of nine seconds.

nother unfortunate loser on the final stage was Dermot Keohane, who registered an 12:10 - one minutes 38 seconds slower than his stage two time, meaning he dropped from eighth to 22nd in one fell swoop.

Liam Wall, on the other hand, leapt upwards from 18th to 11th, despite being three seconds slower over the final stage.

OVERALL FINAL TOP 20 - PROVISIONAL                     ss1   ss2   ss3   TOTAL
 1   3 Terrance Taggart/Bob Kelly     Escort          10:13 10:05 10:25  30:43 
 2   1 David James/Ron Guha           Escort G3       10:11 10:01 10:42  30:54
 3   8 John Nolan/John Manley         Escort          10:30 10:03 10:26  31:07
 4   4 David Percy/Owen Percy         Escort          10:34 10:11 10:42  31:27
 5  14 John Hennessy/Chris Finnegan   Escort          10:49 10:24 10:42  31:55
 6  22 Joe Curran/Ollie Gorrie        Opel Astra      10:48 10:32 10:52  32:12
 7   7 Brendan Brosnan/Jason O'Connor Escort          11:03 10:37 10:37  32:17
 8   5 Gerard McGivney/Donal Crossan  Escort          10:59 10:34 10:46  32:19
 9  28 Gary McCourt/P Shaw            Escort          10:38 10:32 11:13  32:23
10  38 John Rock/Ralph Kellaghan      Escort          11:17 10:43 10:43  32:43
11   9 Liam Wall/Ray Codd             Escort          11:32 10:38 10:41  32:51
12  39 John Carroll/Des Moran         Honda Civic     11:09 10:55 10:54  32:58
13  56 Gerry Maher/Declan Neville     Escort          11:14 10:42 11:07  33:03
14  15 Pat Dunne/Paddy Moloney        Escort          11:22 10:45 11:00  33:07
15  23 Sean Ryan/David Byrne          Escort          11:00 11:08 11:02  33:10
16 149 Shane McCarthy/Mark Kennelly   Escort          11:13 10:53 11:10  33:16
17   6 Tomás O'Rourke/David Doyle     Opel Astra      12:08 10:24 10:49  33:21
18 132 Enda O'Brien/John Butler       Escort          11:39 10:56 10:53  33:28
19  37 Eugene Fitzpatrick/Mary Fitzp  Escort          11:10 10:58 11:26  33:34
20  18 Shay White/Bea White           Toyota Starlet  11:00 11:00 11:37  33:37