MOTOR SPORT:Mark Higgins, with Rory Kennedy of Letterkenny on the pace notes, further extended his lead in the Global International-sponsored Irish Tarmac Championship with a comfortable victory over Eugene Donnelly in the weekend's UAC International Easter Rally.

This was the second Irish win for the reigning British Champion, who won the Cork 20 International last October. Young Ulster driver Kris Meeke was the star of the event. Competing in only his second Irish rally in a Subaru WRC he was fastest over the first of the 11 stages in the Sperrin Mountains. A spin on the third stage dropped him to second behind Higgins, but he retired on the final stage when his engine expired.

Another sensation was the 17-year-old Norwegian Andreas Mikkelson who held third place over the first two stages before slipping back to fifth following an off road excursion into a field.

He recovered to finish third ahead of Kevin Lynch, Eamonn Boland and Gareth Jones, all four in Ford Focus WRC's. Colm Murphy drove flat out over the final stage to finish 7th and win Group N.

After Saturday's six stages Higgins led the rally by 8.4 seconds from Meeke. Donnelly was back in third, all three in Subaru WRC's. Tim McNulty crashed his Subaru WRC out of fourth place on the first of yesterday's stages and a puncture dropped fellow Subaru driver Stephen Murphy out of seventh position.

The rally world is sad to learn of the death of well known Carlow driver Enda Nolan (46) who died on Easter Sunday after a long battle against cancer. He finished his last event the Galway International in February, with co-driver RTÉ's Michael Lyster.