Bradley blasts to Sperrins win!

Local knowledge always helps when rallying. Having a good car also helps. As does being a competent driver.

However, give Camillus Bradley his infamous orange MK2 Escort and put him in Davagh Forest, only a brave (indeed extremely brave) man would bet against him not winning. But that is exactly what he did on last weekend's Tour of the Sperrins rally, making him the first 2WD driver to win a round of the NI Rally Championship for over 10 years!

Based this year in Davagh Forest, and not on the usual closed public roads, Bradley was easily favourite to win the rally. Even thought Championship leader Derek McGarrity had entered in a Hyundai Accent WRC, which actually transpired to be a state-of-the-art MINI John Cooper Works WRC, Bradley was still favourite in his equally state-of-the-art MK2.

The 4 mile Stage 1 got under way at just before 11 O’clock with McGarrity fastest out of the blocks, but not much more than half a second faster than Bradley. He continued his space over the next test, extending his lead to 6.4 secs over the bright-orange MK2.

But, on the next stage, Bradley decided to give it the boot. He was fastest on the final four stages, there were only 6 in the rally, converting his 5.8 sec deficit into a 26.1 sec win. It did help that McGarrity dropped 40 secs on SS5, but chances are that Bradley would have caught and passed the MINI with or without the problems.

The time loss put McGarrity down to third, boosting Drew Stewart up to second in another MK2 Escort. Kieron Graffin took fourth in the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 with Alistair Cochrane took fifth in his MK2, 10 secs clear of Raymond Mason's Evo.

The two MK2 Escort's of James Kennedy and Gary Price took seventh and eighth, heading a pair of Evo's, piloted by Gerard McFall and Kyle Orr.

Round 3 of the McGrady Insurance Junior 1000 Rally Championship was held in Eniskillen, part of the McAleer's Spar Stages Rally. Adam Bustard took the spoils for the first time, with championship leader and winner of the first two rounds, Ben Crealey, barely one and a half secs back in second. Rhys Bunting survived the slippery conditions to take third.