McCarthy leads Carrick in Suir Forest Rally

Cork driver John McCarthy, on his debut in the ex-Bertie Fisher Subaru 555 on the Carrick on Suir

Forest Rally, has set four fastest times on the five stages completed and enjoys a 39 second lead over the Toyota Celica of Eddie Kinirons.

Kevin O’Kane is third, his Subaru is 26 seconds adrift of second place and a mere second ahead of the Peugeot Kit car of Garry Jennings.

The rally is the opening round of the KBB Doors National Forest Championship. Former winner of both the event and the championship, Dermot Kelly (Escort WRC), had a disastrous start. He lost almost two minutes with an electrical malady on the first stage.

There, McCarthy posted the first of his four fastest times to open up a 23 second lead over Garry Jennings.

Outside the top four, Paul Staunton, in a rear wheel drive Mk. 2 Escort is fifth; John McGaffin (Subaru

Legacy) is seventh in a top ten completed by Dermot Kelly, John Shanahan, Graham McClintock and Brian Lawlor.

There are four more stages remaining before the finish in Carrick on Suir.

Meanwhile, Shaun Gallagher/David Moynihan finished second in class in yesterday’s Finnskog Rally in Norway.

Marcus Dodd (Subaru WRC) won the Rallye Sunseeker in Bournemouth, the first round of the Kumho Tyres Rally Championship. The best Irish performance was that of London based Limerick driver, Ollie O’Donovan (Subaru Impreza), he finished ninth.

Cork’s Shane McCarthy was third in the Peugeot 206 class.

Northern Ireland’s, Robert Woodside (Subaru) crashed out on the second stage.

1. M. Dodd/S. McAuley (Subaru WRC) 1h. 08m. 03.0s.

2. A. Burton/J. Roberts (Peugeot Cosworth.) 1h. 08m.25.4s.

3. D. Mann/A. Cook (Subaru Impreza) 1h. 08m. 54.3s.

4. R. Munro/N. Ewing (Subaru WRC) 1h. 09m. 19.7s.

5. R. Duckworth/M. Broomfield (Subaru WRC) 1h. 10m.01.4s.