2004 Northern Irish Rally Championship

Posted: November 19, 2004 7:08 PM

Kieran Shaw led the championship by 2 points from Kevin Lynch going into the final round of the Northern Ireland Rally Championship. Kieran's Subaru Impreza World Rally Car was still suffering from a burst strut and damage to the chassis from the previous rally which made it very difficult to drive and ending any chance of keeping to the pace of the top 5 crews. But leading the rally from start to finish, Kevin Lynch had a great battle with Derek McGarrity as they swapped fastest stage times over the 10 special stages. Derek too was suffering from gremlins in his car as the ECU had stopped working properly which led him to have no 'dash read-out' and the engine cutting out during gear changes. Even though this was losing him an average of 5 seconds a stage he still managed to finish only 15 seconds behind the winners. Taking the Group N win on the day was Raymond Johnston and Richard Bell from Ballinamallard in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 but right behind them on both the Overall and Group N leaderboards was Seasmus Donnelly and Billy McCullins which was enough to guarantee Seamus the Group N Championship win.

• Championship Points in Excel Format