McKinstry leads Irish challenge

Britain’s Jonny Milner in his Toyota Corolla WRC will take a 35.6 second lead into tomorrow’s final leg of the Manx International Rally, a counting round of both the Irish and British Rally Championships.

Finland’s Tapio Laukkanen, driving a Subaru WRC, is second with Kenny McKinstry heading the Irish challenge.

His Subaru WRC is almost four minutes adrift on a day where he started third, punctured, and then climbed back through the pack to regain third overnight.

Today’s main retirement was that of Jari Matti Latvala, he crashed his Ford Focus WRC out of the

rally on stage 15 while the Mitsubishi of British Touring Car Champion, James Thompson was another retirement.

Third placed McKinstry is followed by a trio of Irish drivers - Derek McGarrity, Eamonn Boland and Austin MacHale. McGarrity struggled with the handling of his Subaru.

In Group N, Omagh’s, Seamus Leonard (Subaru) has a comfortable overnight advantage over Aaron MacHale (Mitsubishi) and in the Super 1600 category Ryan Champion, in a Ford Puma, has increased his lead over Gary Jennings, who had clutch difficulties on board his Peugeot.