Lynch wins Lurgan Park Rally

Derry driver, Kevin Lynch, co-driven by Francis Regan, powered his Subaru WRC to a start to finish victory on the Turkington Holdings Lurgan Park Rally today.

He led from the start and after eight special stages, he was eleven seconds ahead of the Mitsubishi of Mark Higgins/Michael Gibson with former ten time winner, Kenny McKinstry, partnered by his daughter, Susan, finishing 7.8 seconds further behind in third place.

Wesley Patterson (Escort) was the top two-wheel drive competitor.

On the opening stage, Lynch was 2.5 seconds quicker than Higgins with McKinstry, in an S8 Subaru WRC, just two tenths of a second behind in third and a tenth of a second ahead of the Toyota Corolla of Charlie Donnelly.

Little changed on the second test with Donnelly displacing McKinstry for third spot.

Out on S.S. 3, Lynch mastered the slippery conditions best of all and extended his lead over Higgins to 4.1 seconds.

McKinstry regaining third, Darren Gass (Subaru) was fourth with Donnelly occupying fifth after dropping precious seconds in the slippery conditions.

Higgins was quickest on S.S. 4 and at the halfway mark, he trailed rally leader Lynch by 3.7 seconds.

McKinstry made a slight error that relegated him to fifth behind Gass and Donnelly.

Lynch maintained a steady pace on the remainder of the event and went on to record his fifth straight victory.

Higgins took runner-up and McKinstry punched in some solid times that saw him regain third.

The top six was completed by Darren Gass (Subaru WRC), Charlie Donnelly (Toyota Corolla WRC) and Glenn Allen (Toyota Corolla) who edged out the Subaru WRC of Peadar Hurson by a fraction of a second.

1. Kevin Lynch/Francis Regan (Subaru WRC) 14m. 52.4s.

2. Mark Higgins/Michael Gibson (Mitsubishi WRC) 15m. 03.4s.

3. Kenny McKinstry/Susan McKinstry (Subaru WRC) 15m. 11.1s.

4. Darren Gass/Sam Cross (Subaru WRC) 15m. 14.4s.

5. Charlie Donnelly/Noel Downey (Toyota Corolla WRC) 15m. 25.2s.

6. Glenn Allen/Brian McCracken (Toyota Corolla WRC) 15m. 28.9s.