Victory for Kelly on first forest mission in three years

On his first forest rally in some three years Donegal’s Donagh Kelly, driving the McGeehan Motorsport Mini WRC, won the Samdec Security Lakeland Forest Rally in Enniskillen.

Kelly, who also had a new co-driver – Mark Cassidy — finished 33 seconds ahead of the Antrim/Cork combination of Desi Henry/Liam Moynihan (Mitsubishi). Monaghan’s Josh Moffett/Jason McKenna (Mitsubishi) had a terrific duel with the winners but they retired on the final stage.

Moffett led Kelly by a mere second on the opening stage with Tipperary’s Pat O’Connell (Mitsubishi) another second behind in third. Moffett doubled his lead on the second stage but made an error at a chicane on the third stage where he also had a major moment.

Kelly continued to become more familiar with the surroundings of the Mini WRC and duly moved into a two second lead after the third stage.

However, half way through the rally Moffett with another fastest time was within a second of Kelly with Desi Henry, who had moved into third place by the second stage, 14 seconds further adrift.

Meanwhile, Frank Kelly (Escort) led the two wheel drive category until he slid off the track on the third stage with Adrian Hetherington (Ford Escort) taking advantage of his demise.

Having made some adjustments to the suspension set-up Moffett regained the lead on S.S. 5 albeit by two seconds from Kelly.

The Monaghan driver then extended his advantage to five seconds with two stages remaining as Henry retained third. Kelly pushed hard through the penultimate stage and was rewarded with a four second lead. A final stage showdown between the pair never materialised as Moffett retired his Mitsubishi with transmission problems. Kelly went on to take victory with Henry second.

Third placed Martin Cairns (Subaru WRC) had trouble with the harness but was able to borrow a replacement that allowed him finish third. O’Connell came home in fourth place followed by Kenny McKinstry (Subaru WRC) and Sam Moffett (Mitsubishi).

Despite a puncture midway through the fifth stage Adrian Hetherington (Escort) won the two wheel drive category.

Monaghan’s Stephen Wright took his Killyhevlin Hotel backed Peugeot 208 R2 to second place in the RC4 category of the ConXoin Tour of Flanders Rally in Belgium. The event was won by Kris Princen (Subaru WRC), who finished 54.8 seconds ahead of the Skoda Fabia S2000 of Freddy Loix.

In the GT Open series at Spa Francorchamps, Cork driver Matt Griffin and his British team mate Duncan Cameron in their AF Corse run Ferrari 458 Italia were in superb form as they took a first and second place in the weekend double header.

In Saturday’s race Griffin/Cameron were third overall and second in the GTS category as they finished the race with the tyres delaminating. Yesterday, Cameron began the race from the seventh row of the grid and handed over to the Cork ace sixth in the category. Griffin was in superb form and lap by lap he reeled in his opponents.

With just six minutes remaining he overtook César Campanico in a classic manoeuvre at Eau Rouge.

In the British Touring Car Championship at Rockingham a double victory and fourth position in the third race of the day for Colin Turkington (BME 125i) saw the Portadown driver increase his lead in the series to 55 points over Jason Plato (MG). Aron Smith (Volkswagen CC) had his best result – twelfth – in the final race.

A new season of the Hewison Autotest Championship got underway in Ballyvourney where there were wins for Bray’s Eamonn Byrne (Mini Saloon) and Rathmore’s Peter Falvey (Mini Special).