Farney’s Maguire has home hopes

Local hero and six-time winner Niall Maguire heads a capacity entry for Sunday’s Monaghan Rally that includes a 30k stage as part of a three-stage loop.

Maguire last won his home event in 2011 where he campaigned his current S11 Subaru WRC and a seventh success is not a certainty even though there are only two other WR cars on the entry.

Omagh’s Seamus Leonard, in an S9 Subaru, showed great pace in the second round of the Dunlop series in Claremorris early last month. Indeed, were it not for a three-minute road penalty — incurred en-route to the opening stage when his car suffered a misfire — he would have been a contender.