Garry Jennings and Rory Kennedy sealed victory at Saturday’s ‘Go’ Tour of the Sperrins Rally, round four of the McGrady Insurance Motorsport UK Northern Ireland Rally Championship.
Organised by Magherafelt and District Motor Club, Jennings eventually arrived home victorious in his Ford Fiesta R5 by five seconds after a day-long battle over six closed road stages with the Citroen C3 belonging to Jonny Greer and Niall Burns.
It was reigning champion Greer who was quickest out of the blocks in his Citroen. He emerged from the opening stage with a 1.4s lead over Jennings but that was to be his only fastest time of the day.
Instead, Jennings started to reel his rival in on stage two, clawing back slender amounts of time before moving to the head of the leaderboard after the third stage.
By the time crews reached service in Magherafelt, Jennings was the new rally leader after two fastest times saw him power in front by 1.9s.
Over the final loop of three stages, Greer hoped to retake the advantage but it wasn’t to be. It was Jennings who had the edge and by the end of the six-stage event, he had done enough to secure his first rally win in over four years.
Jonny Greer and Niall Burns had to settle for second position on this occasion but that was enough to secure maximum championship points. Jennings is not registered for the series so a maximum score for Greer eases a little bit of pressure off the Carryduff man’s shoulders after his retirement from last month’s third round.
In third overall, Desi Henry’s day was thwarted by a bad tyre choice for the morning loop of stages. Outside the top 10, championship hopeful Derek McGarrity had a difficult day in his Polo.
He struggled with handling problems throughout the event and eventually finished 15th overall.
In the two-wheel-drive category, it looked as though David Bogie was on course for the win in his freshly built Escort MkII.
Suddenly, Bogie’s advantage had extended to 17 seconds over Camillus Bradley but the Scot’s hopes of a debut win for the new car were soon dashed when a mechanical issue sidelined the Escort.
That let Bradley and navigator Crawford Henderson into the lead by 3.9s from Frank and Lauren Kelly. However, the Kellys had other ideas and pulled out all the stops on the final stage to secure a last gasp category win!
