McGrady Insurance Motorsport UK Northern Ireland Rally Championship

SS5: Biggerstaff Fastest, McGarrity on Verge of Victory!

With one stage remaining, Derek McGarrity and Sean Topping look to be on course for securing the McGrady Insurance Stages spoils.

They lead the rally by 12.6 seconds from Mark Massey and Eathan McColgan but the relatively safe cushion isn’t stopping the reigning champion from trying hard as he had a small spin during the fifth stage.

“I was just a bit too adventurous and had a spin into some tyres,” McGarrity revealed. “It was my fault. We lost a couple of seconds.”

The stage was reversed for the fifth test and Stephen Wright struggled a little bit to find his way around. He set sixth fastest time and dropped to fifth overall behind a hard-charging Stuart Biggerstaff who set fastest time on the stage.

“We took the same tyres as everyone else this time but we probably could have gone out with a slick!” Biggerstaff smiled.

He now holds fourth overall while Mark Massey continues to hold second comfortably from Derek McGeehan.

“It’s my second rally in a left-hand drive car and with a sequential gearbox,” Massey revealed. “I’m starting to get used to the car and we have good tyres on.”

In third, Derek McGeehan was happier with his tyre choice and fixed his paddle change so he was a lot happier at the stage five finish. He holds third overall and has a comfortable gap to fourth placed Biggerstaff.

Championship leader, Stephen Wright, is fifth overall and just one-tenth of a second ahead of Paul Barrett and Mo Downey, who caught another competitor during their final lap. There’s a big battle on the cards for the final stage!

There were no dramas for Kenny McKinstry and Kevin Barrett reckoned the stage was a bit tricker now that it was being run in reverse. Nigel Feeney struggled with his tyre choice, James Kennedy reckoned he needed two different types of tyre for different sections of the track and he lost the 2WD category lead to Kyle White after the stage.

John Devlin had a spin near the stage end and Gary Rodgers is having some gear selection trouble with his Mitsubishi.

Latest results are online at www.rallyscore.net. The final stage is about to get underway!

Jonathan

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