McKinstry wins Lurgan Rally

Leading from start to finish, Kenny McKinstry on board his Subaru WRC took a comfortable victory in the Orchard Motorsport Lurgan Park Rally today.

The Banbridge ace, who was co-driven on this occasion by Isle of Man native, John Skinner, took a record 11th victory in this specialised event.

At the end of the day's eight stages, McKinstry had five seconds to spare over four times Irish Tarmac champion, Eugene Donnelly while Derek McGarrity (Subaru WRC) took a late third place denying Armagh's, Darren Gass (Subaru WRC) the final spot on the podium.

McKinstry set the pace on the opening stage where he took a 3.3 second lead over Donnelly with McGarrity and Glen Allen (Toyota Corolla WRC) completing the top quartet,

On most stages, McKinstry increased his lead although Donnelly was quickest on one stage, his gain was only a fraction of a second.

Any chance of a maiden victory were scuppered when he drifted onto the grass on two separate occasions.

Gass was set to claim third, however, McGarrity threw caution to the wind on the final stage to deny the young Armagh ace.

In Group N, Raymond Johnson and John McGlaughlin battled hard with the latter turning in fine performances on the final stages to claim victory the showroom category.

The modified category was won by Camillus Bradley, who took advantage when long time leader Wesley Patterson suffered a broken track control arm on the seventh and penultimate stage.

1. Kenny McKinstry/John Skinner (Subaru WRC) 14m. 02.9s.

2. Eugene Donnelly/Andrew Mullan (Skoda Fabia WRC) 14m. 07.9s.

3. Derek McGarrity/James McKee (Subaru WRC) 14m. 15.1s.

4. Darren Gass/Connor McCloskey (Subaru WRC) 14m. 15.3s.

5. Glenn Allen/Kieran McCracken (Toyota Corolla WRC) 14m. 30.1s.

6. Mark Doyle/Mairead Doyle (Toyota Celica GT4) 14m. 57.0s