18 year old Mark Donnelly, from Greencastle near Omagh, and Omagh co-driver Stephen O’Hanlon scored an excellent eighth overall finish on the Todds Leap Rally Northern Ireland event. The Todds Leap Ulster International as it is also known, was a round of both the British Rally Championship, and the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship meaning that it provided the ultimate competition over the two days and 14 special stages in the Co. Antrim hills. Indeed Mark on his first ever International Rally, and first outing on tarmac with his newly acquired Mitsubishi Evo 9 was up against the best Group N field ever assembled on this event.
“Thanks to some backing from Todds Leap, we were able to contest the rally. I must say it was a fantastic event, a fast rally and an extremely fast pace at the front”, commented Mark. Indeed the aim for the event was to primarily finish, and the R317 Motorsport Evo 9 ran faultlessly throughout the event, with the stage times improving as the weekend progressed. On day one, tenth fastest times on Knockboy 2, and Torr Head 2 were promising and they ended day one, eleventh overall, just ten seconds off a top ten place.
The second day started well and the Rogers Fencing car was working well, but sliding wide on the third Tardree stage, damaged a differential pump and the crew were glad to get into the Junction One service area to change the offending part. With the miles the stage times too improved on what was a fast paced rally in dry conditions. 9th fastest on Cairncastle 2, 7th fastest on Tardree 2, and 8th fastest on the final Langford Lodge 2 test were all signs of the improvements. “It was a clinker of a weekend! I really enjoyed the rally, and we were narrowing the gap to the guys in front. We were keeping a watch on Jason Pritchard’s times, and we were getting closer and closer, and there were a few guys behind who I wasn’t expecting to be racing. It was the first run on tarmac with the Evo 9, and as the event went on, I found the better brakes really shone through, as well as the extra pull from the engine.”
Eighth overall was a fine result for the 18 year old who now turns his attention to the Hankook Northern Ireland Rally Championship. Mark is now just 11 points adrift of leader Stuart Biggerstaff and Stephen leads the co-driver’s championship. Indeed Mark also leads the Sunoco Fuels Group N category, and jointly leads the Hankook Junior Championship. The next round of the Hankook series is the Lakeland Stages in the Enniskillen forests on 11th September, and it will be really interesting to see if Mark can climb higher in the championship race.
Redacteur: PB Mark Donnelly | Foto's Roydempster.com
