McGarrity wins Jim Clark International Rally

Derek McGarrity and co-driver, Diarmuid Falvey (Subaru WRC) have won the Kelso based Jim Clark International Rally - a counting round of both the Irish and British Rally Championships.

They finished the 21 stage event with a 26.1 second winning margin over Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Toyota Corolla WRC).

Eamonn Boland/Francis Regan (Ford Focus WRC) were third.

McGarrity moved into the lead on Special Stage 8 today after long time leader, Eugene Donnelly (Toyota Corolla WRC) lost time with a broken propshaft.

Indeed, the Derry driver had to complete three stages before the unit could be replaced.

By then, McGarrity was in a commanding position and led his rival by 37 seconds.

Eamonn Boland (Ford focus WRC), who lost time with a puncture during the opening leg, couldn’t make up ground on the top two as he lost further time with a turbo problem on S.S. 10.

Meanwhile, Rory Galligan (Mitsubishi) set the pace in Group N and headed the British Rally Championship contenders.

For most of the rally he managed to keep a charging Mark Higgins (Subaru) at bay until the final stage where Higgins finished with the same overall time as the Meath driver.

Higgins got the verdict by virtue of a tie-break to take top points in the British rally championship.

Guy Wilks had a dominant victory in the Super 1600 category where Cork driver, Brian O’Mahony retired out of third place when his Ford Puma clipped a bridge and lost a wheel.

1. D. McGarrity/D. Falvey (Subaru WRC) 2h. 04m. 32.6s.

2. E. Donnelly/P. Kiely (Toyota Corolla WRC) 2h. 04m.58.7s.

3. E. Boland/F. Regan (Ford Focus WRC) 2h. 06m. 49.9s.

4. M. Higgins/R. Kennedy (Mitsubishi) 2h. 09m. 27.3.

5. R. Galligan/G. Shinnors (Mitsubishi) 2h. 09m.27.3s.

6. R. Champion/C. Thorley (Mitsubishi) 2h. 10m. 12.2s.

7. G. Wilks/P. Pugh (Suzuki Ignis) 2h. 10m. 24.4s.

8. S. Jones/C. Parry (Mitsubishi) 2h. 12m. 43.2s

9. C. Rautenbach/D. senior (Subaru WRC) 2h. 14m. 18.8s.

10. D. Wight/S. Rogerson (Subaru Impreza) 2h. 14m. 49.1s.

In the Pirelli Irish Tarmac Championship, Donnelly has actually extended his lead over Boland to eleven points.

Points table after 5 Rounds:

1. Eugene Donnelly 62 points.

2. Eamonn Boland 51 points.

3. Derek McGarrity 45 points.

=4. Austin MacHale 22 points

Tim NcNulty 22 points.