It’s All Systems “Go” For Jennings In The Sperrins

The penultimate round of the Northern Ireland Rally Championship took place last month. Sponsored by local NI petroleum company “Go”, the 2023 Tour of the Sperrins was organised by Magherafelt and District Motor Club and took place over six challenging closed-road stages in the Sperrin Mountains of counties Derry and Tyrone. SS1/4 Iniscarn was 5.56 miles long while SS2/5 Glenhull ran at 7.75 miles and SS3/6 Barnes Gap was 7.28 miles in length. Central service was in Magherafelt and Rally HQ based in Walsh’s Hotel, Maghera.

Garry Jennings hadn’t won a significant rally for some time. Prior to the Circuit of Ireland (Cookstown) in April the Kesh driver (who is also sponsored by “Go”) had up-graded his Fiesta R5 to a new Rally2 version. The 2013 Irish Tarmac Champion has had very limited success since his glory days in Subaru World Rally Cars. All that changed last month.

Paired with ultra successful Letterkenny co-driver Rory Kennedy, Jennings was in second place behind Jonny Greer’s Citroen C3 after stage one of the “TOTS” but then went fastest on SS2. Garry took the rally lead with another fastest time on SS3 and then he won all the remaining tests to win the event by 5 seconds from a battling Greer. Third place went to Desi Henry in his Citroen C3.

Amazingly, Frank and Lauren Kelly finished 9th overall and won the 2WD section of the Sperrins with the same “Baby Blue” Escort Mk.2 in which they had that massive accident on the “Circuit”. Now totally rebuilt, the famous car claimed victory on the very last stage of the rally beating the similar car of Camillus Bradley/Crawford Henderson by 2.5 seconds. Scotsman David Bogie had been leading the class by 17 seconds when he retired his new Mk.2 with mechanical problems.

 “GO” TOUR OF THE SPERRINS RALLY (Top 10)

1. Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy……….…...Ford Fiesta Rally2…...39.46.3
2. Jonny Greer/Niall Burns…………………...Citroen C3 Rally2…….39.51.3
3. Desi Henry/Paddy Robinson………….…..Citroen C3 Rally2…….40.05.5
4. Jason Mitchell/Paddy McCrudden………..VW Polo GTI R5……..41.18.5
5. Jason Dickson/Martin Brady………….…..Ford Fiesta Rally2……41.20.5
6. Gareth Sayers/Gareth Gilchrist……..…….Ford Fiesta Rally2…...41.56.2
7. Ian Dickson/Kenny Bustard…………..…...Ford Fiesta R5………..42.28.3
8. Martin Cairns/Peter Ward……………..…...Ford Fiesta Rally2…...42.28.7
9. Frank Kelly/Lauren Kelly……………..….….Ford Escort Mk.2…...42.47.8
10. Camillus Bradley/Crawford Henderson....Ford Escort Mk.2…...42.49.3

We were busy on the Tour of the Sperrins. Lots of BMMC/BRMC members were officiating. For example on Stage1/4 Iniscarn (5.56 miles) we had our rescue crew at the start line then four of us manned the flying finish and stop controls. Victor and I were “double jobbing” covering radio and timing. There were some technical issues with our timing equipment but we managed to overcome them. No major incidents were reported and the weather was dry and sunny all day. 100 cars started the rally and 87 finished.

With one round remaining in the NI Championship, Jonny Greer is back in the frame following his retirement at Shackleton. As Garry Jennings is not registered, Greer scored top points on the Tour of the Sperrins. Closest challenger Derek McGarrity had a poor rally finishing back in 15th place but he is probably still in contention for the title. The final round is another closed-road event: The Carryduff Forklift Down Rally takes place on Saturday 22 July. Championship Points up-date next month.

Rally Diary

Fri. 16th—Sun. 18th June.
Donegal International Rally

Round 5 of the Irish Tarmac Championship. Based in Letterkenny. A full entry list of 160 are due to start including 36 R5/Rally2 cars. Heading the entry are last year’s winners Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes in their Hyundai i20 R5. Callum Devine at 2 is the driver on form this year in his VW Polo but has not had much luck in the past in Donegal. There are 20 special stages. Friday is based around Donegal Town with 3 repeated tests. Saturday is the big day with Carnhill and Garrygort each run 3 times and Knockalla twice. On the final day, Sunday, there are the usual stages of High Glen, Atlantic Drive and Fanad Head which are run twice in that order. We are due to be timekeeping over the three days. The event has a new title sponsor and as a result will be known as the “Wilton Recycling Donegal International Rally”.

Sat. 1st July.
Loughgall Stages Rally

A departure from the usual format of this North Armagh MC organised clubman event this year. As well as the normal sealed surface stages within Loughgall Country Park there will be a closed-road stage nearby. Altogether 7 tests are planned, four in the park and three over the six-mile Kinnegoe closed-road stage. Central service will be in the Country Park. We are providing radio cover and stage marshals. The event is sponsored by the PRM group & RPM motorsport. Last year the Loughgall Country Park Rally was won by Aaron McLaughlin & William Neill in a Fiesta R5.