Kevin Lynch showed his total dominance in rallying on this year's Fisher Engineering Lakeland stages rally, the Dungiven man was simply unstoppable at the weekend taking his WRC Subaru Impreza S9 to a second victory over reigning tarmac champion Eugene Donnelly.
Posted: September 13, 2005 9:24 PM
Despite a long lay off from gravel events Donnelly simply had no answer for Lynch. Initially Glenn Allen had been hounding the Lynch car and after the opening stage the deficit was a mere one second with Donnelly in third a further second back with Raymond Johnston in fourth place five down on Donnelly. The group ‘N' race was also extremely intense as Neil McCance stopped the clocks with a time three seconds faster than Niall McShea who in turn was two seconds in front of John McLaughlin. The other class battles saw many tight battles which were a joy to watch, class one was being headed by Nigel and David McCutcheon followed by James McGovern and Raymond Corrigan in third, class three had Gary Mills and Shane McGirr out front with Mark McCaffery in third and Mario Daly holding fourth. Trevor Farrell was holding his own in class four from Ian Cochrane with Bartley Downey and Mervyn Wilson making up the remainder of the class. Alan Burrows headed class five from Michael McDaid after the retirements of Dermot O'Hagan and Ian Duff. Class six had Niall McCullagh leading from Barry McKenna, Raymond Donnelly and Geoffrey Nevin had been going well up to their retirements. Andy Magee headed class seven from Alistair Cochrane from Bob Riddles.
As the rally reached the midday service Kevin Lynch was ensuring the picture wasn't changing despite Glenn Allen and Damien Connolly joining Lynch as rally leaders after the third stage, Lynch simply rose to the challenge and promptly set fastest time on the next five stages to go into a fourteen second lead going into the penultimate stage where Glenn Allen held second position from Eugene Donnelly with Raymond Johnston in fourth.
The Class results where providing the spectators with some fantastic action and many of the battles could have been classed as the drive of the rally. Group N was very tight Niall McShea had moved into a comfortable lead only for the jack to dislodge the fuel pump after a heavy landing, resulting in a two minute time loss and his class lead, this promoted Neil McCance into the Group N lead and a win which was thoroughly deserved he had battled hard with McShea and also had second place man John McLaughlin hot on his heels the end result had the two separated by fourteen seconds with Conor Kelly taking a fine third in class from Sean Devine, Niall McShea had the consolation of fifth with Errol Clarke seventh in his first run in his Evo VII.
Class one was headed by the Toyota of James McGovern and Niall Maguire the boys had a tremendous drive and were extremely proud of the result, Raymond Corrigan took second in class and was equally as chuffed with his result.
Class three was won by Shane McGirr who was having a great tussle with Gary Mills up to his retirement resulting in a cruise to the finish for McGirr. Mark McCaffrey brought his Lada to a fine second in class and had a truly enjoyable event; Mario Daly took third in his Corsa with Gareth Gilchrist fourth followed by Ian Thompson, Peter Devany and Nigel Mills. Mervyn Wilson was the only classified finisher in class four, despite all his challenger falling by the wayside, Mervyn had a tremendous drive proving reliability and speed are they way forward.
Class five ad Alan Burrows way out front his Escort had the means to take a deserved victory from the MkI version of Michael McDaid who in turn beat the MkII of Fergal McGuinness. Class six was eventually won by Drew Stewart many other drives had their sight set on the win but Drew pulled out all the stops to win from Barry McKenna with Richard Mawhinney taking a fantastic third placing in his big Sierra from Niall McCullagh's Escort.
Alistair Cochrane and Pam Norris were clear victors in class seven from the Vauxhall Astra of Ashley White and Barry Ferris whilst James Kennedy just did enough to hold off Bob Riddles for third place. Andy Magee took fifth followed by Brendan Campbell.
The final service had the leading drivers calculating who was going to do what Kevin Lynch and Francis Regan where in an ideal position they had fourteen seconds over their nearest contender who was now Eugene Donnelly as he had slipped one second in front of Allen whilst Raymond Johnston maintained his steady run in fourth.
The final stage saw Eugene go fastest by for second it was enough to secure his second place from Glenn Allen who had to be content with third but the man of the moment had to be Kevin Lynch he and co-driver Francis Regan hadn't put a wheel wrong all day and the reward was a victory which strengthens their lead in the Northern Ireland rally championship and with a strong points scoring on the forthcoming Bushwhacker the title could be his yet again.
Enniskillen motor club would like to pay particular thanks to Fisher Engineering for their help on this and all events to the Ashberry Hotel, the Print Factory to all the marshals, timekeepers, rescue units and medical team and all who made this the fantastic event it is.
Results
1 Kevin Lynch/Francis Regan (Subaru Impreza WRC) 40:20
2 Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely (Toyota Corolla WRC)
40.30
3 Glenn Allen/Damien Connolly (Toyota Corolla WRC) 40.34
4 Raymond Johnston/Richard Bell (Subaru
Impreza WRC) 41.07
5 Kevin O'Kane/Martin Hanna (Subaru Impreza WRC) 42.11
6 Neil McCance/Sean Ferris
(Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8.5) GpN 42.23
7 John McGlaughlin/David McElroy (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7) GpN 42.37
8 Craig & Rodger Bennett (Ford Focus WRC) 42.49
9 Donagh Kelly/Mark Cassidy (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6)
42.50
10 Conor Kelly/David Vance (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6) GpN 43.27.
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