A brief off road excursion on last weekend’s Galway International Rally cost Garry Jennings any chance of victory, but the Kesh driver declared himself content with second place as the defence of his Irish Tarmac Rally Championship title got underway.  In difficult conditions he finished 25 seconds behind the Subaru of Declan Boyle after a close battle with the Donegal driver that was ultimately decided when Garry slid off the road on stage nine and lost 40 seconds to his rival.

The entry for the rally was one of the strongest in recent years with reigning champion Jennings joined by multiple tarmac champion winner Eugene Donnelly in a Mini WRC, as well as Declan Boyle, Sam Moffatt and Donagh Kelly all gunning for outright victory.  Despite Garry’s recent successes in Ireland he had never won in Galway and he was looking to add the title to his collection.  In treacherous conditions he slid his way to fourth overall after the opening stage, despite suffering from a bad back which had threatened his participation in the rally up until the last minute.

Garry moved up to second spot after the second stage and he held onto that position throughout the day.  He was always in touch with leader Boyle, ending the day less than four seconds adrift, with Eugene Donnelly a further 11 seconds back in third.  More rain fell overnight and the conditions on day two quickly claimed two scalps.  First Donnelly crashed out from third place and then Jennings, who had reduced the overnight gap to the leader to 0.2 seconds, was caught out by standing water just yards from the start line.

“The river had burst its banks and the water was running across the road,” explained Garry. “It wasn’t there on the recce but they warned us at the start of the stage and the gravel crew warned us. It was 200 metres down a straight and round a flat right and through the flood. I saw Boyle braking and I decided I was going to go through it flat out, but it was about a foot and a half of water and it spun us right round and put me into a field backwards. She drove herself out of it eventually but then we had to go back up towards the start line because the road was so narrow. There was nothing I could do, because he would have hit me head on if I didn’t. By that stage they were counting down the next car and he was on three (seconds to go) when I spun the car around in the road in front of him and away again.” Although Garry had almost fallen into the clutches of the chasing pack he quickly built up an advantage over third placed Donagh Kelly, but Boyle was too far ahead to catch.  He managed to reduce the gap to 25 seconds but ultimately had to settle for second place points in the series opener.

“I enjoyed it. It was a good battle,” said Garry. “The car was perfect and it is a better start to the championship than last season.” Rory Byrne was lying third in Group N but retired from the event on Sunday morning. Mervyn Johnston missed out on third overall in the Historic Rally on the final stage but still took first in class in his Mini Cooper.