Harold edged out in last two stages

Editorial Department • Published 8 Oct 2009 14:04 0 Comments

Share this

Ballinamallard's Harold Brown led for ten of the twelve stages of Enniskillen Motor Club's System Signs Clubman Stages Rally, but eventually had to settle for second behind winner Drew Stewart. In the class battle there was more local success, with Neil Harron taking the honours in class one and Jonny Leonard winning class six.

Saturday's Lough Navar based rally, exclusively for two wheel drive cars, attracted an entry of over 50 drivers, and it was the Vauxhall Astra of Brown and co driver Bartley Downey who topped the time sheets from the first stage.

With top seed Alastair Cochrane failing to finish the opening test, Brown led by six seconds after stage one and continued to maintain his pace throughout the day, setting further fastest times on stage three and stage eight. With just two stages remaining he had a ten second cushion over his nearest rival, but Drew Stewart threw caution to the wind on the penultimate test to slice a huge 11 seconds out of the leader.

With a mile of competitive action remaining the top two were separated by one second, but the momentum was with Stewart, and he posted a second successive fastest time on the last stage to win by two seconds. Enniskillen's Andrew Trotter was also pushing hard for a podium position, eventually finishing fifth, one second off the top four.

Jonny Leonard and Jackie Donaldson took a comfortable victory in class six. They brought their Ford Fiesta home almost forty seconds ahead of another local crew, Niall McGrath and Thomas Nugent. Jonny's times were also good enough for an impressive eighth overall.

Ruairi McGarrity and Siobhan Cassidy from Tempo put in a steady run to take second their class, while Darrell and Nicola Harron claimed second in class four.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 08 Oct 09

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our Sport archives.