No stopping Jennings in Killarney!

When Garry Jennings moved up to the start line of SS1 on Saturday morning to head up the daunting Molls Gap, he wouldn't have believed that less then 48 hours later he would be standing back at The Gleneage Hotel at as winner of the 2013 Cartell.ie Rally of the Lakes.

It was truly a rally of attrition, with Derek McGarrity falling victim to a puncture on the very first stage. With this he dropped 30 secs, but it was a sign of things to come for the World Rally Car crews.

Darragh O'Riordan flew up the Gap in his Ford Fiesta RS WRC, the new generation 1.6 litre car proving that it can more than hold it's own with the 2 litre cars it replaced, taking the overall lead. This lead was cut to just 0.8 secs by Denis Cronin, armed with his newly-aquired Subaru Impreza S11 WRC, after SS2. But it all went awry for Denis from here, he crashed out on the next stage, wedging the car between two banks and damaging the steering.

Only three seconds down on the flying Fiesta pilot was Thomas Fitzmaurice. Another driver with a new car this year (last year's Rally of the Lakes winning S12C to be precise), Fitzmaurice ran well getting used to the new car in Galway before retiring with mechanical trouble. Now, however, he was within sight of the leaders.

But it was all over after SS6. An off at close to 120mph on the extremely fast Gortnagane stage left Fitzmaurice with a severely damaged ankle. Co-driver Fionn Foley emerged shaken but uninjured, but the Subaru was destroyed, rumoured to be beyond saving but we'll leave this decision up to the team's mechanics and the car-maker's Prodrive. It's testament to the strength and safety of the modern-era WRC cars that Thomas and Fionn survived the impact. It sends a shiver down your spine thinking of the possible outcome of such an accident 10 years ago, never mind during the ruthless Group B era.

Jennings was the only man keeping out of trouble, with O'Riordan spinning on SS4 and Declan Boyle retiring with a damaged gearbox. Derek McGarrity was suffering with steering problems as well, and he didn't have the parts to cure the problem. The problems were forcing him to adapt his driving style, not left-foot braking anymore and this was curbing his effort to regain lost time.

So at the end of Day 1, O'Riordan lead the rally by 7.3 secs over Jennings (who survived a late overheating scare), with Killarney novice Donagh Kelly holding a surprise third and Derek McGarrity fourth. Alan Ring lead Group N in fifth and Eoin Doyle held sixth in his Ford Focus WRC.

Now, outside of a rally car, Darragh O'Riordan is a man who cuts a small, quiet stature. But put him in a rally car and he can make things happen, rapidly. He blew everyone away on Sunday morning's first run up Molls Gap, ripping 18.1 secs out of Jennings in the process. But his Bertie Fisher-esque pace in Killarney all came to nothing on the next stage, crashing out on a fast right-hander. Only slight frontal damage was done, but he was stuck and out of the rally.

With O'Riordan out, Jennings took over a 48 second lead Kelly in second place, who was in turn 38 secs ahead of McGarrity. McGarrity had only six stages left to catch and overhaul the S11 driver to make it a 1-2 for DMG-prepared. Amazingly, he set five fastest times on the bounce to pass Kelly into the final stage and command a 0.8 sec lead in the race for second. The pair of them went all-out over the final stage, and Kelly went fastest overall. But it was only by 0.3 secs meaning McGarrity took second by half a second!

It was only Jennings' second International win, but he can lay claim to winning arguably both of the most important and symbolic rallies in Irish history, the Rally of the Lakes and Donegal International Rally.

Sam Moffett won the Group N battle after early leader Alan Ring went out with mechanical problems. He lead home Stephan Wright by 3 mins 15 secs in a similar Lancer Evo, with brother Josh Moffett in third, 4 mins 19 secs off the pace.

S-WRC Champion Craig Breen lead the National class after Day 1 by 19.7 secs, piloting what else but a Mk2 Escort. An early misfire was sorted and he drove superbly, relishing every stage but admitting coming across the aftermath of Thomas Fitzmaurice's crash shook him. It was looking like a fairytale drive for the young Peugeot works driver, but head gasket failure put paid to that. This set up a battle between Fergus O'Meara and young Paddy Kiernan, National winner last time out in Galway. O'Meara fought back from engine troubles to win the National class by 21.5 secs.

Wesley Patterson showed the European drivers how to tackle the Killarney stages by winning the Historic category by 1 min 32 secs in his FIA Appendix K Ford Escort Mk2 over a sideways Mark Falvey, driving a Mk1 Escort. Andrew Siddall took third but by being over 8 mins back he show just what a pace the Top 2 were on.

Vincent McSweeney won the Junior section of the rally, with Conor Moore and Daniel Cronin (Triple British Champion Keith's younger brother) backing him up on the podium. All three drivers were armed with Honda Civics, what appears to be the tool of choice for up and coming young drivers!

Finally, GRN would like to wish Thomas Fitzmaurice and Fionn Foley a speedy recovery and an equally speedy return to the stages.