Mourne Rally 2008 Results and Championship Positions

The fifth round of the Pacenotes Northern Ireland Rally Championship marked the half way point in the series. Joining the championship regulars were Peadar Hurson and Derek McGarrity in their Subaru WRC's, both of whom were expected to set the pace.

Most of the top crews though experienced problems on the Camlough stage during the day. Joint championship leader Connor McCloskey retired his S12 on SS1 with transmission failure. Early leader DMG, in his S12b, then had a double puncture on the second run of Camlough, SS4, hitting a rock that would later catch out Hurson and then Devine, resulting in a 30sec road penalty for booking in 3mins late as a result of having to use the spare wheel to change and finding another one. Hurson would get a 20sec penalty after puncturing at the same spot and also being late. Hurson's tyre stayed up until it deflated on the next stage, Slieve Gullion, handing the lead back to DMG before the penalties were included. Devine punctured twice in succession on Camlough hitting the same rock as the other two and dropped down to fourth behind Glenn Allen who was having hydraulic trouble.

Hurson headed into the final three stages, with a three second lead over DMG with the penalties included otherwise Derek would have been leading. Derek took a second back on SS10, then Hurson attacked taking four seconds over the final two stages to win by six seconds, though without the penalties DMG would have won by 4secs. So it was two in a row for Hurson as he acclimatises to his ex-Elliot S10, surprisingly he had never done the Mourne before despite living relatively locally. He will definitely be a threat on the Ulster Rally when he marks his International return.

Reigning champ Allen finished third to bring him back into N.I.R.C contention. Devine was fourth while Marty McCormack took Group N honours. Paul Britton had a massive roll in his Subaru on Gullion (see first video below), thankfully both crew members were ok. One to watch for the future is seventeen year old Mark Donnelly from Omagh driving a Fiesta ST, fresh form a recent rally time trial win in Omagh, and a class win at St Angelo on his debut, he impressed all day until he spun out on SS9. Another up and coming youngster is James Cullen's son Declan in a Class 2 Honda Civic, in which he had a good result with second in class on his debut event. Gary McPhilips won the two wheel drive battle with a fine fifth O/A.

The series now heads to the forests for four rounds, the next being the Dogleap where five time winner Kevin Lynch will be expected to take part.

Top Ten Positions

1 Peadar Hurson/Damien Garvey (Impreza WRC) 43m39s
2 Derek McGarrity/James McKee (Impreza WRC) 43m45s
3 Glenn Allen/Damien Connolly (Corolla WRC) 44m15s
4 Sean Devine/Damien Duffin (Impreza WRC) 45m09s
5 Gary McPhillips/Mark Tierney (Escort Mk2) 46m25s
6 Sean McArdle/Gerard McMonagle (Corolla WRC) 46m32s
7 Manus Kelly/Donal Barrett (Escort) 47m13s
8 Emma McKinstry/Kenny Hull (Impreza WRC) 47m16s
9 Martin McCormack/Liam Moynihan (Lancer Evo 9) 47m21s
10 Daniel McKenna/Andrew Grennan (Escort Mk 2) 47m32s

Videos