Garry Jennings’ attempt to win the Donegal International Rally for the third time ended in dramatic fashion when he crashed out of the event while challenging for the lead.
 Recovering from an early puncture, the Kesh driver was closing in on rally leader Manus Kelly midway through the three-day rally when a high-speed roll ended his chances of victory and left his Subaru upside down in a Donegal field.
Jennings’ previous record in Donegal always marks him down as one of the favourites for the rally win, but this year his low key performances in the events leading up to the rally meant he approached the weekend in hope rather than expectation. 
It quickly became evident however that he was back to his best on his favourite rally. 
He posted second fastest time on the opening stage and by stage three had moved into the lead, only for the lead to evaporate when he picked up a puncture.
“I didn’t expect to be on the pace,” he admitted. 
“I never expected to be second fastest on the first stage, but once I realised that I knew it was ‘race on’. We pushed on then and had a lead coming out of the first service, only to get a puncture on the next stage. We dropped thirty seconds, which knocked the stuffing out of us. 
“There was a stones on the left hand side. I thought I saw the stone and I went to the left hand side of it but it broke the wheel, and on the next right-hander the tyre came off the rim. 
“I thought it was over at that stage, and it wasn’t really until that night when we looked at the times and put it all together we realised we still weren’t that far off the lead.”
Jennings went into Saturday morning twenty seconds behind the leader, but in drying conditions he immediately set about reeling in Kelly and had halved the gap before disaster struck. 
“We had four fastest times in a row on Saturday morning, and then we were going onto his home stage and I knew we had to stay with him,” said Garry.
 “I was on the limiter in sixth gear. My note was ‘two left 40 five left’ but coming down at that speed the forty distance didn’t exist. 
“I chucked her at it but we were carrying too much speed. I would say it was a roll at over a hundred miles an hour, but it was into whin bushes so it was soft at the same time. 
“We were upside down for a minute or a minute and half blowing the horn to try to get people to push us over on our wheels but nobody came.”
Unable to get the Subaru back on its wheels, Jennings had to concede defeat with Kelly going on to record a third consecutive win. 
Despite the disappointment, Garry admits his performance has re-ignited his desire to get back into action. 
“I have a bit of that bug back now. We are getting the car sorted now and we will how she is, and then make a decision on where we go after that,” stated Jennings.
Further down the field there were class battles raging, with none more competitive than the battle for second in class twelve. 
Ronan Campbell and co-driver Kevin Creighton were exchanging seconds with rival Anthony McCann, and after nineteen stages and three days of rallying were on identical times going into the final stage, but local driver Campbell edged ahead on the last Glen stage to take second in class by 1.3 seconds.
Damian Campbell and Declan McGarrity brought their Escort home inside the top thirty in a very competitive national rally section, while Ruairi and Martin McGarrity just missed out on a top three finish in class 11F after a battle that went down the final stage of the rally.