Running at number one on the road, Ballinamallard man Garry Jennings was the first to venture out onto the damp, foggy stages of Thursday afternoon, and for the first time this season he was also the first Super 1600 car home, as he claimed a class win. The Peugeot 206 driver has consistently had to give second best to the pairing of Kris Meeke and Gyndaf Evans in previous rounds, and the Manx looked to be following the same format as Garry found himself in third spot on Thursday night, despite recording a quickest time through the town stage of Castle town.

     Friday morning brought dramatic changes to the leaderboard however, with both Meeke and Evans suffering mechanical failure that ended their challenge and catapulted Garry to the head of the time sheets. For the remaining stages of the day the Fermanagh man was locked in a fierce battle with the Ford Puma of Ryan Champion as the pair tussled for supremacy over the fast demanding Manx roads, but by the end of the day it was Champion who had pulled out a lead when the Peugeot of Jennings hit problems. “We got stuck in fourth gear on one of the stages and lost 40 seconds,” explained Garry. “Then on the last stage of the day we broke a driveshaft and we had to do seven miles on one shaft, so we dropped another two and a half minutes. We were very lucky, because we were crossing railway tracks, and as I gave her the power over the tracks the shaft broke, which flicked us down the road. We went about 60 yards fighting with the car. She went up a stone wall, but she came back down onto the middle of the road and away I went.”

    With a huge gap to leader Champion, Garry held out little hope of catching the Puma driver, but the island stages were to have a sting in the tail. On the second last stage, Garry came round a corner to find Ryan Champion’s battered Puma in the hedge and out of the rally. It was bitter blow for Champion who seemed to have the rally sewn up, but a stroke of fortune for Garry who went on to seal the class win.

    In class N1 it was an all Fermanagh affair, with Aisling Dooris and Wendy Blackledge eventually holding off the challenge of Harry Cathcart and Brendan McElhinney. Aisling has had a hugely successful season since her accident on the Circuit of Ireland, and she racked up her second successive class win in a British Championship event. The pair of black Suzukis were the front runners in the class right from the off, with Aisling edging ahead of Manx veteran Harry on the opening stage, and she steadily increased her lead throughout to claim the honours in the class by over four minutes. As always, she also received the award for the top ladies crew.

    In the historic section Mervyn Johnston made his first appearance since injuring his back after a heavy landing on the Circuit, but showed he had lost none of his old touch as he cruised to yet another class win. Facing the power of a multitude of Porsches, his Mini Cooper had to admit defeat in the overall standings on this occasion, but the ‘Tullyhommon Flyer’ brought the immaculate green machine home seventh overall and won his class by an incredible eleven minutes.

    The only Fermanagh pairing to return home empty handed were Conor Byrne and Nigel Frazer. The pair made a solid start in their Mitsubishi Evo and were inside the top 30 at the end of day one despite a brief excursion through a closed gate and into a Manx field. Planning an attack over the dry stages of day two, their hopes were destroyed when the differential gave up with a bang just a few miles into the opening stage of the day.