12 August 2002: Oliver Stanley from Durrow, Co. Laois has won the opening round of Irelands Premier One Make Rally Championship, the 2002 Ford Ireland Focus Rally Championship at the Stonethrowers Rally based in Clonmel.
Oliver has progressed through the ranks of the Ford Ireland "Ladder of Opportunity", having competed in the highly successful Ford Ireland KA Rally Championship for two years prior to taking part in the inaugural Ford Ireland Focus Rally Championship.

Colm Murphy (Limerick) in the Kingdom Fastfit/John Guerin Crash Repairs/Garry O’Keeffe Haulage Ford Focus set the early pace revelling in the damp slippery conditions to take an eleven second lead from Hamilton Bell (Hillsborough). Oliver Stanley in the Perry Motors Ford Focus stormed back setting fastest Focus time on stage three and four to take the lead from Murphy by four seconds.

On stage five Murphy fought back to record fastest Focus time to reduce Stanley’s advantage to just one second. Oliver replied on stages six and seven to increase his lead to five seconds. However stage eight was cancelled and the battle came down to the wire. On stage nine the last of the day, Murphy threw caution to the wind driving like a demon only to get caught out half was through the stage spinning on some gravel, loosing vital seconds and with it all hopes of victory.