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John McGlaughlin claims last gasp Lurgan Park Rally GpN spoils
Eleventh for Kenny in Lurgan
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Event Details
John McGlaughlin claims last gasp Lurgan Park Rally GpN spoils
Cookstown's John McGlaughlin added another trophy to his cabinet when he secured Group N victory aboard his McGlaughlin's Bakery Mitsubishi Lancer at Saturday's Lurgan Park Rally!
Navigated by Comber's Graham Curry, the Sunoco Fuels crew traded tenths of a second with their rivals throughout all eight stages at the beautiful County Armagh venue. Thousands of spectators witnessed the action unfold, and McGlaughlin was initially caught on the back foot at the popular venue.
"The weather conditions were very changeable," McGlaughlin explained. "We put a hard slick tyre on the car but the heavens opened on the start line. I thought we were going to lose the whole thing but we only dropped one second."
McGlaughlin and Curry were still in the hunt, and they picked up the pace to reel in their rivals. With one stage remaining, they moved into the category lead by a slender three-tenths of a second. It was all down to the final stage, and McGlaughlin pulled out all of the stops to take his Bush Filling Station sponsored Mitsubishi Lancer to another production category victory, as well as ninth overall!"
"We had very few problems," McGlaughlin said afterwards. "I missed a gear on two occasions and we ran wide into a hedge at one point, but apart from that, we had a solid run. It's great to get the win in Lurgan Park after trying for so many years!
As for navigator, Graham Curry, he was equally as satisfied with the result. The 26-year-old Comber man started navigating earlier this year, and Lurgan Park was only his third event!
"Navigating in Lurgan Park was a childhood dream come true," Curry said afterwards, "and the result with John made it that little bit more special. I've navigated on three events now and won the class on three occasions - that's a hat trick!"
With success at the Lurgan Park Rally now behind him, Cookstown's McGlaughlin is now eyeing up the spoils at the upcoming ToddsLeap.com Ulster Rally. Based in Antrim, the event is due to take place over 21/22 August, and the TightAngle.com Lancer will be vying for the top spot! Eleventh for Kenny in Lurgan
Banbridge man Kenny McKinstry, co driven this time by Manx National Rally Clerk of the Course John Skinner scored a start to finish victory on last weekend’s high profile Orchard Motorsport backed Lurgan Park Rally. McKinstry was driving one of his Subarus and led from start to finish, but that didn’t mean the rally was far from boring, far from it.
Four times Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly drove hard in his Skoda Fabia WRC to take 2nd place while Derek McGarrity and Darren Gass, both in Impreza WRC’s, had a massive battle for 3rd with McGarrity edging it on the last stage by 0.2 of a second.
Eleven times now Kenny McKinstry has won Lurgan Park, a feat which will probably never be repeated. Kenny knows that every stage counts on this intense rally and he was 3s faster than Donnelly over the opening stage, with McGarrity almost 2s behind the Skoda. Donnelly knew after that opening test that he was going to have a real battle if he was to win the rally for the first time.
Stage 2 brought little change in the status quo. Yes, Donnelly was a couple of seconds quicker but so was McKinstry. By the half way halt McKinstry had a 5.5s advantage and he reckoned that if he kept his nose clean through the afternoon stages victory was his. So it proved. The early damp conditions changed into a warm balmy afternoon and the thousands of spectators were treated to a superb driving display by many of the drivers. Darren Gass really got to grips with his hired McKinstry Subaru through the afternoon and got ahead of McGarrity on stage 7.
However, young Darren’s 0.2s advantage was changed into a 0.2s deficit on the final stage. Darren’s Subaru seemed to run low on fuel on the final straight and chugged a little which probably made the difference between 3rd and 4th place.
Glenn Allen in his Corolla WRC had no real problems during the day and had a solid run to 5th, while Mark Doyle nursed his Celica’s clutch from the first stage to the last and did well to take 6th.
Raymond Johnston led GpN for much of the day, but John McGlaughlin in his similar Lancer put on a huge charge over the final stages to just take the GpN win from Johnston. In the battle of the Mk2 Escorts Wesley Patterson put on a terrific show and was right into the top ten from the word go, but a broken track control arm in stage 6 put paid to the Lisburn man’s chances.
Viv Hamill and Camillus Bradley then had a great race over the final two stages for the Mk2 Escort honours, with Camillus just taking the honours by 1 second. This was all the more remarkable as Bradley had lost a bit of time on the opening stage when his Escort broke a brake pipe. Full Results
1 Kenny McKinstry/John Skinner (Subaru Impreza WRC) 14.02.9
2 Eugene Donnelly/Andrew Mullan (Skoda Fabia WRC) 14.07.9
3 Derek McGarrity/James McKee (Subaru Impreza WRC) 14.15.1
4 Darren Gass/Connor McCloskey (Subaru Impreza WRC) 14.15.3
5 Glenn Allen/Kieran McCracken (Toyota Corolla WRC) 14.30.1
6 Mark Doyle/Mairead Doyle (Toyota Celica GT4) 14.57.0
7 Brian Dowey/Ricky Cochrane (Ford Escort WRC) 15.07.4
8 Alan Carmichael/Ivor Lamont (Subaru Impreza WRC) 15.07.8
9 John McGlaughlin/Graham Curry (Mit. Lancer Evo 9 GpN) 15.11.7
10 Raymond Johnson/Rodney Hicks (Mit. Lancer Evo 9 GpN) 15.12.8 Class Winners:
Class 1: John McGlaughlin/Graham Curry:
Class 2: Camillus Bradley/Danny O’Neill (Escort):
Class 3: Mark Doyle/Mairead Doyle:
Class 5: Phillip Hunter/Paul Bolton (Escort): Leaders:
SS1-8 Kenny McKinstry/John Skinner (Subaru Impreza WRC) Stage Winners
SS1 Kenny McKinstry/John Skinner (Subaru Impreza WRC)
SS2 Kenny McKinstry/John Skinner (Subaru Impreza WRC)
SS3 Kenny McKinstry/John Skinner (Subaru Impreza WRC)
SS4 Eugene Donnelly/Andrew Mullan (Skoda Fabia WRC)
SS5 Kenny McKinstry/John Skinner (Subaru Impreza WRC)
SS6 Kenny McKinstry/John Skinner (Subaru Impreza WRC)
SS7 Eugene Donnelly/Andrew Mullan (Skoda Fabia WRC)
SS8 Eugene Donnelly/Andrew Mullan (Skoda Fabia WRC) Click here for Full Times! Lurgan Park Rally Winning Formula.
Lurgan Park Rally is all stations go for Saturday 8th August 2009, retaining all the best aspects of its winning formula built up over 30 years since the first running of the event.
Craigavon Borough Council is once again giving the rally its support and the format remains broadly similar to last year, with eight special stages within the beautiful confines of Lurgan Park, with its amphitheatre feel and family friendly service paddock.
As ever, the competition promises to be white hot and there will be as much attention on the battle of the Escort Mk2 Challenge as there will be for the overall winner. Kevin Lynch has been the outright victor for the last three years in his Subaru and the Dungiven man will be back this time to bid for six wins in a row, which would be a new record.
Kenny McKinstry, who will be ch allenging Lynch for supremacy again this year, has won Lurgan Park 9 times over a 26 year period, and Welshman Gwyndaf Evans has won it three times, but nobody has equalled Lynch’s feat of taking five consecutive victories.
Some of the other top drivers who will be bidding for Lurgan Park glory include Glenn Allen (Corolla WRC): Denis Biggerstaff (Subaru): John McGlaughlin (GpN Lancer): plus Wesley Patterson, Camillus Bradley, Trevor Moore and Adrian Hetherington in Mk2 Escorts. There will also be a Historic section and young Ian Corkill from the Isle of Man will be making the trip to Lurgan Park to do battle with the similar Escort RS1800’s of Seamus O’Connell and Stuart Clarke, to name just a few.
Scrutineering for the event is in Lurgan Park on the Friday night, and the action begins at 10.30 on Saturday morning with the first of the eight stages. William Fullerton is again the Rally Director, Barry Taggart is the Clerk of the Course and Keith Somerville is the Secretary of the Meeting.
Issued by: Brian & Liz Patterson Click here for Regulations Click here for Entry Form Event Website
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