Gary Jennings warmed up for next month’s Donegal international Rally with third place on Sunday’s Cavan Stages rally.

Gary Jennings warmed up for next month’s Donegal international Rally with third place on Sunday’s Cavan Stages rally.

The former Irish Tarmac Champion has not competed since February and was keen to use the event as a warm up to the Donegal event in June, and he had a trouble free run in his Subaru on his way to third overall.

The Subarus of Paedar Hurson and Niall Maguire set the pace at the front of the leaderboard all day with Garry finishing 70 seconds adrift of the eventual winner. Although he acknowledged his car was down on power, he was happy with the test as he settled back into competitive action.

“It was really about doing a good tyre test with the new Kumho tyres,” said Garry. “We tried three different types of tyres and changed every loop to see what the difference was and we got all the feedback we wanted. There was no damage done. We were just neat and tidy, and it was good to get a bit of seat time.” With little under a month until the Donegal event, Garry is fine tuning the car and he is confident that his Subaru will be competitive as he makes his return to the Irish Tarmac Championship.

Chris Armstrong continued his good form with second in class and fifth overall in Cavan in his Ford Escort. The former Brookeborough man was four seconds down on eventual class winner Gary Kiernan after the opening stage and was then overhauled by the Toyota Starlet of David Moffett, but he fought back to reclaim second spot after setting the fastest time in his class on stage four and maintained his position over the closing loop.