Second place for Donagh Kelly and Kevin Flanagan in the McCormack Opel/Sligo Park Hotel Stages Rally was enough to clinch their first Triton Showers National Rally Championship with just six of the eight rounds completed.

The Donegal-Derry pairing have dominated the season, winning four of the six counting events and finishing second and third in the others, to leave them with a huge points lead over former three times title holder Niall Maguire from Monagha.

The Sligo Rally was won by Declan and Brian Boyle, the National champions for the last two years, but their run of bad fortune for most of the year meant that their hopes of taking a hat-trick of titles vanished some time ago. However, since changing from their troublesome Impreza to a Fiesta last month, they have proved that they still have
the pace to be front runners for the rest of the year.