With McGarrity's new car only arriving
a few days before the event itself, he had little time to adjust to
it, but it wouldn't look like it, as he won the first stage by
7.8secs. This white-hot pace continued up until the finish, winning
the rally by 51 secs after it's 6 stages.
After a scrap with the other MINI of
Derek McGeehan, Kieron Graffin made the switch from his usual Group N
Mitsubishi to a Subaru Impreza WRC S9 for this event and took second,
with McGeehan in third, only 1.7 secs behind.
John McGaffin took fourth in the second
Subaru Impreza WRC, 40 secs ahead Group N winners, David Graham and
James McDermott in fifth. Sixth went to 2WD winners James and Heather
Kennedy in their MK2 Escort.
Dominic McNeill brought his Mitsubishi
Lancer home in seventh, 6 secs ahead of David Armstrong in eighth.
Trevor Ferguson took ninth, just ahead of event sponsor Fintan
McGrady, tenth in his MK2 Escort.
In the showroom category, David Graham
took the win by half a minute over Trevor Ferguson, with the Group N
'new boy' Jason Curran, who is still getting used to his new car,
third again in Group N.
Curran landed himself a 20 sec penalty
for landing into SS1 start control early, putting him on the back
foot before the rally had even begun and throwing him back to 33rd
overall and last in Group N, but he and co-driver Barbara Love fought
back to claim third in Group N and 12th overall. Jason and
Barbara hope to do the full Northern Ireland Rally Championship this
year, and two thirds from two events mark a near-perfect start for
the likeable pairing.
The Junior 1000 Rally was won by Ben
Crealey and Liam Regan in convincing fashion, marking their second
straight win. After only 4 stages, young Ben's winning margin was an
impressive 20 secs. Kyle Orr took second in class in his Peugeot 107,
with Rhys Bunting in third.
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