Weather conditions dictated the difficulty for drivers and the result of the 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. 

Jennins 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 2nd 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. 

It was just a case of managing the lead for Garry Jennings as he crossed the finish line of the final stage with a 3 minute 25 second advantage.

It was a victory that Jennings desperately wanted.  “We have been trying to win the Galway rally for while; we have come close on a number of occasions but to finally win, and in Galway is just excellent!”

Local interest was upheld by Richard and James Whelan, who brought their Citroen DS3 R3 home in 16th overall in the International Rally. It was a great result for the Galway pair as they are still gaining experience in their new car. Their sister Sarah, was overnight leader of the National Rally navigating with Eugene Meegan but, unfortunately they were caught out on a muddy section of the Kilnadeema stage and were forced to retire.

That left Wesley Patterson as the winner of the  National Rally in his Ford Escort followed by Tom Flaherty and Patrick Curly. Tom and Patrick also won the Brian G Thornton Memorial Trophy for the highest place Galway Motor Club.

Another local crew to have an outstanding drive was Ray Cunningham and Adrian Cusack. Ray drove the door handles off his Mini Cooper to win the Historic rally by nearly 3 minutes!

Clerk of the Course Kieran Donohue was delighted with the turnout of both of drivers and spectators “From an organiser’s prospective it was wonderful to have so many competitors travel from all over the globe to compete. It was also incredible to see the amount of spectators out on the stages in such bad conditions. Numbers were well up on last year and that is mainly thanks to our incredible sponsors Corrib Oil”.