Donnelly and Hughes dominate incident-packed Samsonas Fivemiletown Rally

Mark Donnelly claimed his second Fivemiletown victory in two years

Sun, 23 Nov, 2025 - 14:06

Martin Walsh

The Omagh crew of Mark Donnelly/Cathair Hughes (VW Polo GTi R5) came out best in an incident-packed Samsonas Fivemiletown Rally where at the end of Saturday's eight stages they had 17.3s to spare over the Ford Fiesta Rally2 of Omagh's Gareth Mimnagh and his Isle of Man co-driver James Barry McCarney. Monaghan's Josh Moffett (Hyundai R5) and his Wexford co-driver Andy Hayes were 11.9s further behind in third.

Top seed and last year's winner Niall McGonigle made an early exit, his Ford Fiesta Rally2 suffering gear linkage failure on the 6.98 mile (Jenkin) first stage. Monaghan's Derek Mackarel, running a 32mm restrictor on his Ford Fiesta R5, actually set the quickest time - 1.5s ahead of Donnelly, who spun and stalled his VW Polo R5 with Sion Mills driver Darragh Cairns, also in a VW Polo GTi R5, 5.2s further behind in third.

Although Mackarel extended his lead through the short 2.04 mile (Crocknagrally) second stage to 3.6s, he retired after the stage finish when his Fiesta R5 clipped a rock that ripped a wheel from his Fiesta. After SS3 (Doon - another short stage) Donnelly headed the leaderboard - 5.1s ahead of stage winner Derry's Jordan Hone (Fiesta R5) with Mimnagh third. On what was his first gravel rally in some six years, Josh Moffett occupied fourth from Cairns, who lost time with a puncture. By the completion of the loop of three stages that also included a shorter version of Jenkin and a repeat of Crocknagrally, Donnelly, with stage wins on the latter pair of stages, extended his lead to 12.7s with Mimnagh second - 8.6s ahead of Hone with Moffett and Carlow's David Condell, who was debuting a Skoda Fabia Rally2 and Cairns completing the top six.

Donnelly was untroubled through SS6 and SS7, extending his lead to 17s over Mimnagh, who was best on SS6. The battle for the final spot of the podium was between Hone and Moffett, the former suffered a rear puncture on the penultimate stage and a 1.2s advantage after SS6 subsequently became a 16.3s deficit to the Monaghan driver, who was finally settling into a good rhythm.

Donnelly went on to seal his second Fivemiletown victory in two years with Mimnagh and Moffett, who punched in the best stage time (SS8) for his second stage win of the day, completing the top three. Condell and the unlucky Hone followed, however, the latter did enough to win the Brown & Brown Northern Ireland Forest Rally Challenge series from Ford Fiesta Rally2 of Stephen Dickson while Ashley Dickson, who went off the road on SS6, still had enough points to claim third in the series. He was co-driven by Rosscarbery's Alistair Wyllie.

The race to become the winner of the 2025 Sexton Trophy Young Racing Driver of the Year award has been narrowed down to three drivers - Dubliner Sean McGovern (20), Derry's Fionn McLoughlin (18) and Kildare's Jason Smyth (19). McGovern, who won this year’s Ford Fiesta Zetec championship, wrapped up the series with three races to spare and then switched to the Seat Supercup series where he secured pole on his debut race; Smyth, a runner-up in last year's award, showcased his talent by winning the prestigious Walter Hayes Trophy and the overall Formula Ford Festival; Red Bull Junior driver McLoughlin took the British Formula 4 Championship in style with five race wins and was also on the podium on nine other occasions. He will step up to the FIA Formula 3 Championship with the Hitech outfit in 2026.

The structure of the award has changed this season with the winner receiving a €42,500 support package to help develop their motor racing career while, for the first time, the first and second runners-up will get €5,000 and €2,500 respectively. Meanwhile, the interviews for the Billy Coleman Young Rally Driver of the Year Award take place in Dublin on Wednesday. The nominees are Donegal's Kyle McBride (22) and Joe Kelly (22); Meath's Cian Caldwell (21), Wexford’s Jack Kennedy (20), Youghal's Ross Ryan (19) and Clonmel's Casey Jay Coleman (22). The winners of both awards will be announced at the Motorsport Ireland Champions Awards Lunch on Wednesday December 3rd at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry, Co. Dublin.

Samsonas Fivemiletown Rally, Fivemiletown: 1. M. Donnelly/C. Hughes (VW Polo GTi R5) 27m. 34.3s; 2. G. Mimnagh/J Barry McCarney (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+17.3s; 3. J. Moffett/A. Hayes (Hyundai i20 R5)+29.2s; 4. D. Condell/J. McElhinney (Skoda Fabia Rally2)+52.6s; 5. J. Hone/P. Hone (Ford Fiesta R5)+53.2s; 6. A. Smyth/E. Sherry (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+54.1s; 7. D. Cairns/M. Preston (VW Polo GTi R5)+1m. 05.0s; 8. S. Dickson/B. Teggart (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+1m. 23.3s; 9. G. Sayers/G. Gilchrist (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+1m. 57.7s; 10. P. Britton/P. Ward (Ford Fiesta R5)+1m. 58.0s.

Brown & Brown Northern Ireland Forest Rally Challenge: 1. J. Hone 118 points; 2. S. Dickson 108pts; 3. A. Dickson 95pts.