Wray Wins In Loughgall

Strabane driver Aidan Wray scored his first-ever stage rally win last month. He and his fellow Strabane co-driver Peter Ward won the popular annual clubman event, North Armagh MC’s Loughgall Stages Rally by six seconds in their VW Polo GTI R5. Second was the up-and-coming Waterford man Eddie Doherty accompanied by Tom Murphy from Limerick in a Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo. Winner for the past two years, Aaron McLaughlin finished third in his Ford Fiesta R5. McLaughlin had Darren Curran in the hot seat once again and because their newer Polo wasn’t available following problems after the Donegal Rally, the Donegal pair were 42 seconds behind Doherty after the seven stages.

The rally, which had 82 starters and 61 finishers, ran to the same format as last year. Three runs over the 5.93 mile Kinnegoe closed road stage interspersed with four 3-mile tarmac tests in the nearby Loughgall Country Park. We were providing rescue and radio cover as well as stage marshals. The weather was typical for early July, dry, sunny and warm for most of the day with just the odd heavy shower.

McGarrity On The Beach

The 2024 Motorsport UK McGrady Insurance Northern Ireland Rally Championship drew to a conclusion last month. The fifth and final round, the Tyrone Stages Rally at Benone was held over private MOD tarmac roads at Magilligan Point in Co.Derry. Last run in 2018 the short 14-stage event attracted a very low entry of just 42 cars. This was probably because most of the championship placings had been finalised after the fourth round. Among the missing was 2024 champion Jonny Greer who chose to take part in the gravel Scottish Rally that same weekend. An event in which he finished an impressive second overall. Perhaps Greer has his eyes on the NI Forest Rally Challenge which resumes next month.

We had been helping out on all five rounds of the NI Championship this year. On the  Cookstown MC organised Tyrone Stages we covered rescue, timekeeping and radio on seven of the fourteen tests. Our stage, which was reversed for the final three runs, consisted of a twisty 3-mile-drive through the sand dunes of the famous Benone Beach on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Club members also were stage marshals on the day which had mixed weather conditions, very wet early on and then drying out later.

Derek McGarrity and Graham Henderson dominated the rally in their Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo. Leading from start to finish the Glengormley/Derry crew finished 5.3 seconds ahead of the 2WD Darrian T90 GTR+ of the Dungannon pair Barry Morris and Martin Harte. In third place was the Ford Fiesta Rally2 of Castlederg’s Gareth Sayers and Gareth Gilchrist. Sayers had been holding second place until the stages dried out in the afternoon, then the lightweight Darrian was able to speed up and eventually claim the runner-up position. Former eight-time NI champion McGarrity has only made sporadic appearances this year and this was his first Championship win since April 2023. Of the 42 starters only 28 made it to the finish of the rally.

With regards to the 2024 NI Championship, Jonny Greer had of course already been crowned champion with a maximum 120 points but following the retirement of Aaron McLaughlin on the Tyrone Stages (his Fiesta R5 broke a driveshaft on SS11 while he was in third place) Jason Dickson has finished runner up with 107 points. McLaughlin was third on 103 points. The best Junior was young Ben McFall. The Co.Antrim Mitsubishi driver was fourth on the Tyrone Stages and fourth in the championship with 95 points, a future star no doubt about that! Colin Price was the top 2WD driver, he finished fifth in the championship.

Looking Back

Marshalling memories

40 Years Ago….1984

Walter Rohl and Christian Geistdorfer dominated the Rentatruck Ulster Rally in their 500 bhp Audi Sport Quattro. The former World Champions finished over four minutes ahead of the Opel Manta 400 of Russell Brookes and over an hour and a half ahead on stage times of the last of the 46 finishers, John Steven’s Mazda RX7. 70 cars started the 27-stage event which was based in Belfast. Jimmy McRae was third, Bertie Fisher fourth and Billy Coleman fifth, all in Manta 400’s.

Bertie Law and Bobby Campbell won the 1984 Burmah Rally in Lurgan Park. They were in a Vauxhall Chevette and took victory by just 4 seconds from the Ford Escort Mk.2 of Fred Crawford and Drew Todd. The Opel Manta of Bertie Fisher and Brian Patterson was third, beaten by Crawford on a tie-break, both having finished on the same overall time. The six-stage-mixed-surface event was held in brilliant sunshine. We were marshalling as usual.

30 Years Ago….1994

Kenny McKinstry, driving his Subaru Legacy, won the Burmah Rally for the seventh time. Second some 19 seconds down was Frank Meagher in an Escort Cosworth with David Greer also in a Cosworth third. We were marshalling once again.

Car racing returned to Bishopscourt for the first time in 21 years when the new Eurocar series made its Irish debut. Kenny McKinstry drove one of the Ford Sierra look-alike machines and won the first of two races from legend Barry Lee. In the second race Englishman Phil White took the win from Lee. We were marshalling the Thundersport Spectacular which also included Kart racing.

20 Years Ago….2004

The 25th Anniversary of the Lurgan Park Rally took place on the 14th August. Sponsored by Triton Showers the event was won by Kevin Lynch who was also dominating the 2004 NI Rally Championship in his Subaru Impreza S9. Mark Higgins was second in a Hyundai Accent while Jonny Milner was third in his Skoda Octavia. All three were World Rally Cars. Eighteen of us were manning the fire points around the eight stages.

Rally Diary

Sat. 17th August
Modern Tyres Ulster Rally

The sixth and penultimate round of the 2024 Irish Tarmac Rally Championship. Based in Newry once again. The organisers are the NI Motor Club. Eight closed road stages (four run twice) SS1/5 Shinn Bridge SS2/6 Banbridge North SS3/7 Tyrones Ditches SS4/8 Babylon Hill. We are providing officials, radio cover, timekeepers, rescue, refuelling and stage marshals. Sign-on remotely via rallyscore.net

Sat. 7th September
Lakeland Stages Rally

• Round 2 of the 2024 ANICC McGrady Insurance NI Forest Rally Challenge
• Round 4 of the 2024 Sligo Pallets Irish Forest Rally Championship

Organised by Enniskillen MC and based in the capital town of County Fermanagh. The stages are in the forests of Ballintempo, Carrigan, Conagher and Big Dog, one of which will apparently be the “BEST AND LONGEST GRAVEL STAGE IN IRELAND”! As normal we are covering rescue, timekeeping and radio plus stage marshalling. Sign-on remotely via rallyscore.net Check the EMC website for final details closer to the date.