Higgins and Gibson claim Ulster Rally

Mark Higgins, from the Isle of Man and Belfast’s, Michael Gibson had a facile victory in the AnswerCall Direct Ulster Rally, a counting round of both the Pirelli Irish and British Championships.

At the end of the 19-stage event based in Armagh, their Ford Focus WRC was two minutes and 38.6 seconds ahead of the Toyota Corolla of Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely.

Austin MacHale/Brian Murphy in a Ford Focus WRC finished third – a further two minutes and 1.8 seconds in arrears, they had clutch difficulties towards the finish.

Rally winner, Mark Higgins took the top points in the Irish series while Austin MacHale was the principal beneficiary in its British counterpart.

In the Irish series, Donnelly joins McGarrity as joint leader.

McGarrity competed under appeal and, unofficially, his times would have netted him third overall. Should he win his appeal and with the dropped score rule taken into consideration, McGarrity would have a two point lead entering next month’s final round, the Cork “20” International Rally.

In the British series, David Higgins, who dropped to 36th. overall on the first stage yesterday, recovered well and finished ninth in his Hyundai and the points he gained today were just enough to keep him at the top of the British series where he leads both Austin MacHale and Matthew Wilson by a mere point.

In the battle for fourth today, Tim McNulty finished just 0.4 of a second ahead of Eamonn Boland.

A puncture on the closing stages didn’t prevent Mathew Wilson’s Ford Focus from finishing sixth.

In the Super 1600 category, Gwyndaf Evans in his Ford Puma pipped the Suzuki Ignis of Guy Wilks by a mere 0.4 of a second.

Monaghan’s, Dessie Keenan in a Mitsubishi won the Group N category, he also clinched the showroom title in the Irish series.

Today’s main retirements were the Subaru trio of Jonny Milner, Kevin Lynch and Maurice Gass.