Mark Donnelly and Stephen O’Hanlon claimed victory at the Samsonas Rally Fivemiletown, round one of the McGrady Insurance NI Forest Rally Challenge!
It was a start-to-finish success for the Fiesta R5 crew but the Greencastle driver was never able to relax as the chasing pack hunted him down throughout the eight-stage Omagh Motor Club event.
Going into the final stage, Donnelly’s advantage had been whittled down to just one-tenth of a second but he pulled out all the stops over the closing miles to secure the win by 1.7s.
As it transpired, he had done enough to seal the win from Gareth Mimnagh and Barry McCarney, who were in another Fiesta R5. In fact, it was Mimnagh who was fastest on the final test, moving him in front of Vivian Hamill and Andrew Grennan at the last gasp.
With cars refuelled and refettled in service, crews returned to action after lunch to continue the battle. Mark Donnelly was quickest out of the blocks to extend his lead to two seconds over Mimnagh and Hamill. Then Hamill returned fire over the following two tests, leaving one-tenth between him and the leader with one stage to go.
However, it was Donnelly who held on tight to seal the win while Mimagh moved up to second overall with a stunning fastest time over the final stage.
In the two-wheel-drive battle, Adrian Hetherington and Ronan O’Neill held the early advantage in their Ford Escort MkII. They had a cushion of nearly 10 seconds over Martin McCormack and Barney Mitchell at the halfway point, with both drivers sporting some bodywork damage after clipping chicanes. But the second half of the rally was to be less fruitful for Hetherington after a problem during stage seven forced his retirement.
Instead, Martin McCormack and Barney Mitchell raced home as the two-wheel-drive category victors in their Escort. They finished just 4.7s ahead of Alan Smyth and Arthur Kierans, while Shane McGirr and Denver Rafferty were left rueing a stage three puncture in their Lada as they secured third in class, just 2.4s further back.
Top 10 Result
| 1. Mark Donnelly/Stephen O’Hanlon (Fiesta R5) | 26m34.5s |
| 2. Gareth Mimnagh/Barry McCarney (Fiesta R5) | +1.7s |
| 3. Vivian Hamill/Andrew Grennan (Polo R5) | +2.6s |
| 4. Conor McCourt/Caolan McKenna (Fiesta Rally2) | +7.4s |
| 5. Niall McCullagh/Ryan McCloskey (Fiesta Rally2) | +13.4s |
| 6. Ryan Caldwell/Shane Byrne (Fabia R5) | +1m03.4s |
| 7. David Condell/Michael Coady (Fiesta R5) | +1m09.5s |
| 8. Derek Mackarel/Emmet Sherry (Lancer Evo 9) | +1m22.7s |
| 9. Stephen Dickson/Dermot McCafferty (Fiesta R5) | +1m50.1s |
| 10. Paul Britton/Peter Ward (Fiesta R5) | +2m00.1s |
