Sebastien Loeb Tames the Hills Of Donegal

Daniel Elena and Sebastien Loeb
celebrate their first rally victory in Ireland. Photo Neil McDaid

By Neil McDaid

Letterkenny, Ireland, June 17, 2007. Three time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb takes the overall victory in the 36th running of the Donegal International Rally.
In 2006, the Donegal Motor Club built a frenzy of sorts when they lured WRC Champion Colin McRae out of semi-retirement to compete in a Metro 6R4. With the additional attraction of the WRC Mitsubishi Works cars on the start line the event was a great success. After the event many thought the club would be hard pressed to top the success of the 2006 rally. Roll on to 2007. With Ireland securing its first-ever round of the World Rally Championship in Sligo this coming November, top WRC teams began scrambling to get some experience on the Irish roads.
With two time WRC Champion Marcus Gronholm, who is also the most successful Finnish driver in the history of the WRC, showing up at the Galway Rally in February rumors and speculations were running wild as to who might show up in the hills of Donegal in June. Just two weeks before the start of the rally the Donegal Motor Club announced that they had confirmation from Citron WRC team boss Guy Frequelin that he would enter their 07 WRC Citron C4 in the event and it would be piloted by ace driver Sebastien Loeb. With British Rally Champion Mark Higgins, along with 30 WRC cars among the 200 cars entered, rally fans flocking to Donegal were in for a great weekend of action on some of the most unique tarmac stages in the world.

The rally would get underway Friday with the first stage taking place just outside of Letterkenny. In the many years I have attended this rally, I cannot recall ever seeing such a large crowd on the Friday stages. Obviously, they were all there to get an early peek at Loeb.
SS1, Breenagh, would see Mark Higgins, along with local co-driver Rory Kennedy, master the wet conditions setting the fastest time for the stage. Seventeen year old Norwegian driver Andreas Mikkelsen, known on the Irish Tarmac Championship as “The Special One,” would slot his WRC Ford Focus into second. Amazingly, the Norwegian teenager was just four seconds off the pace of Higgins, while also edging out Eugene Donnelly who had to settle for third.
Northern Ireland driver Andrew Nesbitt, who has won the Donegal a record five times and is the defending champion, would not make it through SS2, Cark Mountain. His McKinstry Motorsports Subaru S10 would stop with suspected electrical problems after cresting a few big jumps. Too bad, as we were now left wondering how the master of the Donegal Rally would have faired again the boss, Loeb. Higgins would maintain the pace through the first three stages of day one.

The Citron service crew would look to improve the set-up on Loeb's C4 @ the first service in Letterkenny on Friday. Photo Neil McDaid

Heading into the first service of the rally in Letterkenny, the early leader board would show Higgins, Loeb and then Eugene Donnelly in third.
Team Citron and Loeb made it perfectly clear in several TV interviews that their goal for the rally was to gain experience for Rally Ireland; it was not a priority to win the event.
Neither Loeb nor Team Citron had ever competed in Ireland and were in need of some experience on the very unique tarmac stages.
They would quickly realize that the Irish stages were, in Sebastien’s own words, “fast, narrow and bumpy, with this very special type of tarmac.” In their four hot runs on the shake down stage on Thursday they determined that they did not have a suspension set up to deal with the bumpy Irish stages. It was obvious by Loeb’s pace on the first few stages on Friday that they were not totally confident with how the car was handling.
During the first service, Loeb’s C4 would get yet another new set of suspension in an ongoing effort by the service crew to find the correct set-up for the conditions at hand. The Citron mechanics would also slip in a new gearbox in record time.

The teams would go out and repeat the first three stages of the day. Conditions would continue to worsen as the day rolled on. Heavy down pours began to leave large puddles on the stages. Nonetheless Higgins would continue to set the pace over SS4-5. Loeb would eventually show form by taking his first stage win on SS6, Mongorry, bettering Higgins by just two seconds.
By the end of day one Mark Higgins, who is currently the points leader in the 07 Irish Tarmac Championship, would be delighted to have a 37-second lead over Loeb, not to mention setting faster stage times over the World Champion. Continuing a great drive, Andreas Mikkelsen would sit comfortably in third.

A massive drive from Seamus Leonard secures the GPN victory and 6th overall. Photo Neil McDaid

With a guarded promise from RTE of clearing skies day two would take teams, and the ever increasing throng of spectators, up onto the Fanad Peninsula. Early drama would come courtesy of Andreas Mikkelsen on SS7, Fanad Head. Reports were coming over the rally radio that there was a car off and no sign of the crew. Eventually, Mikkelsen and co-driver Ola Floene would clamber up to the road side and display the OK board. Their Ford Focus WRC was lodged deep in the Fanad scenery and sustained enough damage that it could not continue.

Reportedly, Loeb’s engineers had come up with a suspension set-up during the day Friday that was already fitted in Loeb’s car. And so it would be the beginning of some blistering times from the reigning WRC Champion; he was fastest by 15 seconds over Fanad Head.
There were several stages on the Donegal that everyone expected Loeb to excel on. The second stage on Saturday, SS 8 Knockalla, was definitely one of them. Spectators in small RVs had begun to claim prime viewing spots on the mountain some 24 hrs before the stage was due to run. Although the road up over Knockalla is two lanes wide with smooth fast tar, the first seven miles of the stage can be an extremely fast, hair raising adrenaline rush to say the least. Competitors would start by charging up through the mountain’s hairpin turns from the Portsalon side. Then they would go down a long, twisty high speed decent with several deadly drop offs that were just waiting for the slightest mistake by the drivers.

Coming out of Friday with the overall lead, Mark Higgins was now running first on the road on the early Saturday stages. He would attack hard over Knockalla, committing fully to the notes he was receiving from navigator Rory Kennedy. Higgins would push his Pirelli sponsored Subaru a little too hard over the big jump at Oughterlin Chapel sending the car high in the air and taking a hard hit on the landing. The impact damaged a front rim that eventually caused a flat. By the time Loeb completed the stage and stopped the clocks on SS8, the forty-second lead that Higgins had the night before had now diminished to just two seconds. Loeb was definitely finding his form.

Eugene Donnelly struggles on Friday to stay on the pace. Photo Neil McDaid

It had been a disappointing first day for Ireland’s reigning Tarmac Champion and two-time winner of the Donegal, Eugene Donnelly. The Derry man struggled Friday with neck pain from an old injury and some mechanical issues with the gear box. He just about managed to stay within the top five. Feeling somewhat better Saturday, Eugene would start clawing back some time on Kevin Lynch who had moved his WRC Ford Focus into third with the early departure of Mikkelsen in Fanad.
By the second service in Milford, which was close to the mid point in the rally, Loeb had taken command of the overall lead by 10 seconds over Mark Higgins. Kevin Lynch was holding off Donnelly for third by the narrowest margin while Donegal driver Paul Harris was having a great run in his hired WRC Corolla in fifth.
The Group N battle was firmly in the hands of Seamus Leonard [Omagh] in his newly prepared Mitsubishi. Colm Murphy, who had been running second to Leonard throughout the stages, rolled his Subaru STI on Knockalla. This moved Gary Jennings to second; Stuart Darcy would make it a 1-2-3 for Mitsubishi. The national rally, which really should have been called the MK11 Rally, would see a great battle between English driver Phil Collins and local driver Brian Brogan. Unfortunately, Brogan would have a big off a few stages later ending his charge.
Through the remaining six stages of day two, Loeb would continue to gain confidence on the narrow Donegal roads. He opened up a forty second lead over Higgins by the end of the day.
Day three. With three stages being run twice to make up the final six stages of the rally, one needs to plan on either Glen Village or Atlantic Drive. With thousands of cars following the action traveling on the roads between stages was nearly impossible, so Glen it was. Although we could have witnessed Loeb and the others at a higher rate of speed tearing over Atlantic Drive, the atmosphere in Glen is hard to pass up. Maybe it’s because it is the last resemblance of the great, town stages that used to a big part of the Donegal Rally. For this one day in the year thousands descend on this sleepy little village with about 8-10 houses, and one pub, for the infamous High Glen Stage.

Wall to wall rally fans lines the streets of Glen village Sunday. Photo Neil McDaid

SS17-20 would pass through Glen and on both occasions Loeb would be untouchable. On his second run through Glen he was 10 seconds faster over his nearest rival. Eugene Donnelly would find his form on SS19, Atlantic Drive, matching times with Loeb. Donnelly was elated, as he is himself a big Loeb fan.
Kevin Lynch’s rally would come a sunder on the penultimate stage SS21 Port Lake. Lynch would hit a rock, puncture a wheel and damage his steering rack ending his rally. Donnelly suffered a loss of power on Port Lake, but managed to nurse the Subaru back to service.
Loeb came to Donegal with a focus on testing for Rally Ireland, he left satisfied that his Citron team had learned a lot about the challenges they will face in November. As Loeb pulled his Citron on to the finish ramp in Letterkenny to claim victory you could clearly see he was in awe at the reception he received from the enthusiastic Irish rally fans that lined his way.

Loeb would go on to say that he loved taking part in the rally. “We didn’t have the pressure of the world championships and the Irish have a strong rally culture. There was a massive crowd. It’s not like some of the rallies, during some trips between stages, you’re stopped at the lights, with people in the car next to you looking down at you and the car as if to say who’s the idiot in the car covered in stickers. No, here the public really are connoisseurs. The atmosphere is very similar to Le Mans. There were spectators camped everywhere in all imaginable spots. Some were even camping in the town centre. We could smell the barbeques, hear the modified cars and see fountains of beer! It was such a party! I’m sure we’ll see the same atmosphere in November.”
As a added bonus for future winners of the Donegal rally, their names will now be added to the Jim Callaghan Memorial Trophy alongside that of Sebastien Loeb who, quite possibly, could become the greatest rally driver of all time. Two minutes a drift of Loeb, Mark Higgins and Rory Kennedy would happily claim second, which secured them maximum Irish Tarmac Championship points. Eugene Donnelly, just happy to be there, claimed third with the departure of Kevin Lynch. Seamus Leonard had a great drive setting the fastest time on every stage to claim the Group N victory.
After starting the rally for the past 23 years and not finishing the event one time, Phil Collins not only finished the rally but also claimed top honors in his MK11 Escort in the national rally. Of the 16 cars competing in the Historic Class, Richard Hall would take his beautiful Ford Escort home in first.
Based on the interest in this year’s Donegal Rally, with only one WRC star in attendance, one can only imagine the amount of spectators that will line the ditches during Rally Ireland in November.