O'Brien brothers take back-to-back victories with win in Enniskillen

Meanwhile, in the EKO Acropolis Rally Greece, the tenth round of the World Rally Championship, Thierry Neuville (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) took his second victory of the season in a dramatic finish

Monaghan’s Derek Mackarel (Ford Fiesta R5) turns a corner at the Trailer Parts and Spares Lakeland Rally in Enniskillen.

Omagh brothers Patrick and Stephen O’Brien took their Skoda Fabia R5 to back-to-back victories in the Enniskillen based Trailer Parts and Spares Lakeland Rally, a counting round of both the Sligo Pallets Irish Forest Rally Championship and the McGrady Insurance Northern Ireland Forest Rally Challenge. With their principal rivals encountering difficulties during the six-stage event they finished a minute and 47.5s ahead of the Ford Fiesta Rally3 of Donegal’s Eamonn Kelly and Monaghan’s Conor Mohan. Monaghan’s Derek Mackarel (Ford Fiesta R5) finished third and took maximum points to extend his lead in both series, he was co-driven by Inchigeelagh’s Eamonn Creedon and finished a further 6s behind.

With the opening pair of stages slightly shy of 2.5miles there was never going to be much between the main contenders. Strabane’s Niall McGonigle (Ford Fiesta Rally2) led the similar car of Omagh’s Cathan McCourt’s by 1.1s with O’Brien having to sweep the loose gravel from the stage, 0.4s further behind. O’Brien was best on SS2 to cut the deficit to 0.5s with McCourt, who lost time at the stage start 2.2s further back, the VW Polo GTi R5 of Vivian Hamill (fourth) cut out on a few occasions. Fifth placed Ryan Caldwell reckoned his road position didn’t help his progress, his rally ended on SS3 when he slid off the track.