2010 Ulster Rally report
21 August 2010
McGarrity claims narrow victory on Ulster (WRC) Rally
Glengormley's Derek McGarrity, co driven by James McKee took his first Ulster Rally victory on the 2010 Toddsleap.com Ulster (WRC) Rally, ending the event just 1.1 seconds ahead of 2009 runner up Gareth MacHale. McGarrity and MacHale had took turns at leading the Antrim based event, with McGarrity's Subaru taking the top position early on before he was overhauled by the MacHale focus on the second run over he Torr Head on Friday evening.
McGarrity came out fighting on Saturday, taking 6 fastest times to leap past MacHale, but an overshoot on the penultimate stage reduced his advantage from 12 seconds down to 1.1 as he crossed the finish ramp at Jnction One on Saturday evening.
The MacHale brothers finished second and third, both driving Ford Focus WRC's ahead of Dutch visitors Arjen de Konig and Hein Verchuuren in fourth in a Mitsubishi Lancer.
In the battle for Rally NI honours, Waterford's Craig Breen took his first International win for both himself and Ford's S2000 Fiesta.
Indeed the event was dominated by the young Irish Challengers, with current British Rally Champion Keith Cronin and Barry McNulty finishing second and Fermanagh's Alastair Fisher and Rory Knnedy in third. The top three finishers were all involved in an event long battle with Ulster Rally veteran Gwyndaf Evans, who harried the young challengers until an brush with a stone wall damaged the cooling system of his Mitsubishi, leading to retirement late in the event. Adam Gould finished fourth overall ahead of Bryan Bouffier and Xavier Panseri who took the new Citroen DS3 R3 to fifth overallon its world competition debut.
Another young driver to make his mark during the ‘Ulster' weekend was Manxman Conor Corkill who dominated the category three section within the Ulster Historic Rally. He finished ahead of the similar Mk2 Escort of Will Onions, with the Chevette HSR of Rob Smith in third.
The expected category 3 challenge from local driver Ryan Barrett ended abruptly on the very first stage of the event when the Ecort Mk2 suffered gearbox failure. The Barrett team worked during the day to replace the broken unit to enable them to join in on Saturday but amazingly the sameproblem happened again on the very first test on Saturday. Right from the off, David Stokes and Guy Weaver set a cracking pace in category two, although local crew Keith McIvor and David Burns were right in contention in their Porsche 911. With the Escort running like clockwork, Stokes ended the first day well clear of rivals Jeremy Easson and Alun Cook, but recognised that for maximum points he needed to beat Ernie Graham and Iain Johnston on Saturday's times as well. A distributor problem cost Graham a lot of time on Friday, but with Saturday's stages going past his former home, he would surely fly. Stokes pushed very hard and eventually beat Graham by just 4s on Saturday with a big late charge that also took him ahead of MIvor's Porsche.
In category one, a fine victory went to the Mini Cooper S of Ray Cunningham and Ross Forde, ahead of Jonathan Gale/James Whitaker (Sunbeam Tiger) and current British Historic Rally Champion Dessie Nutt/Geraldine McBride (Porsche 911).
In the Ulster National Rally, George Robinson and Tommy Speers took victory after several crews took turns at leading the event. John McGlaughlin and Crawford Henderson took a break from the Mitsubishi Evo Challenge to enter the National Rally and were rewarded by going to bed on Friday night with a lead of 11 seconds ahead of Declan McNaughton, with Robinson and Speers in third in the Subaru.
Retirement for McGlaughlin on the first run over Cairncastle handed the lead to McNaughton who held on for another 2 stages befre he put his car off the road on the very last stage of the event to gift the win to Robinson. Fintan McGrady put in a fine performance all weekend to finish second ahead of Sean Haveron in third.
Finally, in the Ulster Challenge Rally, Ford Fiesta ST's dominated both the Friday and Saturday sections with John Pritchard and Damien Smith winning the respective events.
Posted by PMcCollum on 24/8/2010; Last updated by PMcCollum on 24/8/2010