Frank and Lauren Kelly won what was described by one of his main rivals as a very tight race by winning Carlow’s MK2 Challenge last Sunday.
Driving the famous Baby Blue Escort, they finished tenth overall to boot. It was Kelly’s third win, but his first with his daughter alongside and 11 years since his previous win.
They were lucky to make the finish as a single bolt held the car’s alternator over the final loop of three stages. The rally also incorporated the 20th anniversary of the Mk2 Challenge.
A set of tough stages with minimal grip even in the scorching weather conditions. As they set the pace from the start to which they as the stages progressed they where the more consistent out of all the MK2 Escorts which where competing at Carlow.
Not only that but they finished third in the modified class to boot. This would be the pairs first major success on Irish tarmac since the opening round of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship at Galway in February.
In second place 14 seconds behind where Michael Carbin & Dean O’Sullivan with Michael Cahill and Killian McArdle taking third.
