Outright win for Jennings in Donegal

Editorial Department • Published 13 Oct 2011 13:30 0 Comments

Garry Jennings rounded off a successful season with outright victory in the Donegal Harvest Rally.

Not for the first time this season Garry was able to match and better the World Rally Car opposition in his Group N Mitsubishi, but unlike the recent Cork 20 International Garry was able to cling on to his advantage and edge home five seconds ahead of the Subaru of Niall Maguire.

Just days before the event Garry was contemplating hiring a WRC Subaru for the event, but at the last minute decided to plump for his more familiar Mitsubishi, and it proved to be the right move. In damp conditions that suited his car Garry started with the fastest time on the first stage, setting a time an impressive 12 seconds clear of his nearest challenger.

Having established an early lead he continued to extend his advantage over the next three stages. Niall Maguire then began to mount a fightback as the two drivers pushed their cars to the limits. Maguire's Subaru matched Jennings' time on stage four before recording a series of fastest times, although he was unable to take enough time to force himself to the top of the timesheets. With one stage remaining the Kesh driver retained a nine second advantage, and although Maguire halved the deficit he was unabe to overhaul his Mitsubishi rival.

"It was flat out from the very start to the very last corner," admitted Garry. "We knew that was what we had to do to beat those guys, and I got a good jump on them at the start. The second last stage had a lot of junctions and that's were we lost a bit of time, but the last stage was over a mountain and it was flat the whole way. It was good to get the win, especially in a group N car, and it was probably one of my biggest outright wins along with the Ulster."

The victory confirms Garry's 2011 season as one of his most successful ever. In addition to claiming the Group N Irish Tarmac Championship he has notched up nine Group N wins in his last nine starts and secured three outright wins.

Tweet

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 13 Oct 11

Post a comment

Your Comment:

Registered users log in here

Username or email

Password

You must be logged in to post. If you have not registered with us, please do so now.

Registration only takes a few minutes. Registered users do not have to complete word verification once logged in and can also take part in competitions and other registered user only features of the site.

Word Verification:
Enter the text as shown.

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