Jennings wins 2016 Corrib Oil Galway International Rally

Monsoon like conditions greeted the drivers over the weekend and Fermanagh man Garry Jennings with navigator Rory Kennedy in a Subaru Impreza WRC kept his head when all around him were losing theirs to take their first ever Galway International Rally win.

Jennings commented at the finish ramp outside The Clayton Hotel, that he was “Delighted to take the victory after a very challenging event”.

In the end he had a 3 minute 25 second lead from Keith Cronin, who put in a great drive to finish second in his Citroen DS3 R5. Alastair Fisher was another 16.5 seconds behind in third after 190 kilometers of rallying.

On Saturday Jennings was fastest out of the blocks on a stage that took the first casualty on the event, Tim McNulty in the MINI WRC. Jennings set a time 6.8 seconds quicker than his main rival Declan Boyle.

Boyle in his Ford Fiesta WRC reported a steady run over the stage but he was to crash out on stage 6 and that left Jennings with a clear lead that he increased through the day and led overnight by 1 minute 27 seconds. Behind, Keith Cronin and Alastair Fisher were battling hard with only 2.4 seconds between them over the 6 stages of Sunday.

Sunday morning and Garry Jennings stamped his authority on the event when he took the fastest time over the infamous Black Road stage. By the morning service in Gort, he had extended his lead to 2 minutes 34 seconds but the main interest was now the race for second place. Keith Cronin, Alastair Fisher, Sam Moffett and Desi Henry were all separated by 26 seconds with 4 stages to go.

Henry was the first to crack, crashing out on stage twelve; Cronin went on to set a blistering time, a full 13 seconds quicker than Fisher and Moffett.

The penultimate stage saw the demise of Sam Moffett’s challenge when he overshot a junction losing over 30 seconds to his rivals but still held fourth place overall.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.