Rally News No.1                                   Radisson Roe Hotel Limavady Saturday 9.30am

Reigning Northern Ireland champion Kevin Lynch and co driver Francis Regan will head the capacity field away this morning from the Limavady start in their KPL backed Impreza WRC.  Local businessman Lynch is chasing a hat-trick of wins here on what is effectively his local event and the rally that saw him take his first ever rally win here two years ago.  Since then Kevin has gone on to become one of Ireland’s top drivers with wins at almost every level but recently he has had to curtail his rallying activities due to a back injury and is pretty much making a one off appearance here today and at next week’s Lurgan Park rally as a mark of thanks to all those who have supported him.  The reality is that Kevin will be very hard to beat over today’s traditional Dogleap Stages with four stages repeated twice to the East of Limavady and then finishing off with two final tests in Loughermore Forest to the West of Limavady. 

Glenn Allen comes to the Dogleap today fresh from his biggest win to date on the Cork two day forestry rally a fortnight ago.  He and co driver Damien Connolly are in top form and the Cookstown driver will be looking to extend his Northern Ireland championship lead today but of course he is still chasing that elusive NI championship first win in his Corolla WRC.  Behind Glenn we have the usual gaggle of Northern Ireland championship front runners in WRC machinery and this includes Kevin O’Kane at three in his Impreza WRC, Kieran Shaw at four who wheels out his Lancer WRC once again and his hoping for a reliable run while Craig Bennett is fresh from a top ten run on the Jim Clark and he drives his usual Focus WRC.  Raymond Johnston is gradually coming to grips with his Impreza WRC and is in a determined frame of mind in pursuit of a good result at this level.

Neil McCance has been stunning in his GpN Lancer this year, especially on gravel and today should be no exception as he chases the GpN championship title.  He is only seven points ahead of Martin Elliott (15) but the Antrim driver is lacking gravel experience and might struggle today.  John McLaughlin and Johnny McKenna can both be stunning on their day and recent performances from both have seen them put some of the WRC cars to shame.  Slightly further down the field is Easter stages GpN winner Terry McGonigle and he along with other drivers like Seamus Donnelly and last year’s Dogleap winner Eoin McErlean are all capable of taking the GpN class today.

As always the 2wd class is stunningly spectacular and ultra competitive.  Alistair Cochrane has taken class honours on the last couple of Northern Ireland championship events but by the smallest of margins.  Mark Barnett can always be counted on to have a good run on the Dogleap while slightly further back James Kennedy, Seamus O’Connell and Frank Kelly are all capable of taking class seven.  Former event winner Trevor Moore makes a welcome return to the Dogleap and he wheels out his class six Mk2 and should be the pace setter in that class.  Other interesting entries include former Northern Ireland champion Sean Haveron who is another making a return to the Dogleap and Sean should be up to speed fairly quickly as he has only recently returned from winning the International Police Rally in Belgium.  Tony Armsby has made the trip across from England in their Lancer and it will be interesting to see how the crew fair on these tough Dogleap Stages.

More News Later Michael Patterson and Zoë Todd