03/11/07 - After 10 rallies held across the length and breadth of Northern Ireland, Glenn Allen and Damien Connolly have emerged as the 2007 Pacenotes MSA Northern Ireland Stage Rally champions! Second overall behind Sean Devine and Damien Duffin at Saturday's Ballymena based Townparks Glens of Antrim Rally was enough to secure their maiden title success!

Allen, who hails from Cookstown, entered the final round of the series just one point clear of second placed Stephen Moore and Tony McHugh. With dropped scores taken into account, nothing less than a win for Moore would have seen him lift the prestigious title. He was on 'maximum attack' from the start, and almost jumped off the road on the opening Slieveanorra stage!

It was evident that the Pomeroy man was going on an all out charge for victory, but it was Sean Devine and Damien Duffin who were fastest on that opening stage. They finished the test four seconds faster than Moore, handing them an early advantage. Moore replied by going fastest on stage two, slicing one second out of Devine's lead, but the Subaru pilot extended his advantage by two seconds on stage three.

Devine was aiming for his third Glens of Antrim victory on the trot, and he was really spoiling Moore's plans. The challenger was already 30 seconds ahead of championship leader, Glenn Allen, but second overall was not enough to lift the title. Moore, who sealed the Irish National Forestry title earlier this year, knew he needed to overhaul the Subaru pilot.

Stage four, Ballypatrick, was to provide the turning point in the rally. On a charge for the rally lead, Moore's hopes of rally victory, and ultimately championship success, were turned on its head. He 'out-braked' himself into a corner, and his Ford Focus WRC slipped off the road and into ditch.

With Moore out of the event, Glenn Allen was guaranteed his maiden championship title! The pressure was still on though, as the Cookstown man had to finish second overall in order for navigator, Damien Connolly, to claim the navigators' award.

While Sean Devine continued to accelerate into the distance, Allen had a battle on his hands. Richard Hogg and Mark Hanna were now second overall, and they increased their advantage over Allen to 14 seconds on stage five. Now at the event's midpoint, Allen knew he had to up his pace to reel in the flying Limavady man, and fend off a charge from fourth placed Raymond Johnston and Richard Bell.

Fourth placed Johnston had been struggling with gearbox trouble all morning in his Subaru, and at first service, his mechanics pounced on the car. They recalibrated the state-of-the-art 'box, and all seemed well in the Johnston camp. Unfortunately, a different story was told just a couple of miles into stage six.

"The paddle change had been changing gear by itself," Johnston reflected, "But we thought it was sorted in service. Then two miles into Slieveanorra, we were accelerating out of a hairpin right and when I tried to pull third gear, I had no gears at all. That was the end of our rally."

Now that Johnston was sitting by the sidelines, third placed Glenn Allen was able to concentrate on reeling in Richard Hogg and Mark Hanna. Hogg was going to be a tough nut to crack though, and while he lost 12 seconds with a spin on stage six, he was back on the pace just one stage later.

Unfortunately for Hogg, lady luck was not on his side on this occasion, as a broken gearbox mounting saw him lose time hand over fist. Suddenly, Glenn Allen and Damien Connolly found themselves in a very strong second position. A clean run through the final stages saw them seal the runner-up spot, and championship success was theirs!

"We had a terrible rally but it turned out good enough in the end," Allen said. "I was using my own car but a few settings had been changed since it was reshelled. We also had to take the engine out of the car that I was using a couple of weeks ago, and put it into my car, so it was a dolly mixture of a thing!"

"Once we got the setup sorted, we started setting good times," Allen continued. "It was a good rally and winning the championship is brilliant. Everybody had 'smiley smiley' faces at the finish, and there was champagne all round!"

Event winners, Sean Devine and Damien Duffin, were equally as happy at the Tullyglass Hotel finish. Their victory marked their third on the trot at the event, and provided a warning signal to their rivals ahead of next year's series.

Richard Hogg and Mark Hanna were lucky to hold on to third overall considering their problems, clinging on by a mere five seconds from Kevin O'Kane and Martin Brady. The result bodes well for the Skoda crew, who are still acclimatising to the car after purchasing it just a couple of months ago.

"We were having a good race with Glenn," Hogg said. "But unfortunately the gearbox mounting broke a couple of stages from home. We just had to keep trucking and other than that, the car performed very well. It's just unfortunate it broke, but c'est la vie!"

Andrew Purcell and Mick Courtney brought their Group A Impreza home in fifth overall ahead of James Murphy and Tommy Speers, while John and Mandy McKeown were seventh in their Escort Cosworth.

In the Sunoco Fuels Group N category, Paul Britton and Martin McGarrity emerged victorious in their Subaru Impreza, but in championship terms, it was all about Eoin McErlean and Ian Cochrane.

McErlean, navigated by Donard McCann, had a drama filled day, starting from the first stage when the steering column broke over a jump, falling onto his lap! Then he was slowed with a puncture but managed to fight back into contention and finished stage eight just one second ahead of rivals, Ian Cochrane and David Vance. Unfortunately for McErlean, more drama lurked around the corner...

"On the road section to stage nine, I could smell a bit of oil," McErlean recalled. "All of a sudden, there was a big crunch and that was the end of our rally - the rear diff had exploded. It was just my luck but that's the way it goes."

Ironically, Ian Cochrane was also in trouble during the same road section when his hired Mitsubishi Lancer encountered a fuel pump problem! His heart was in his mouth as he desperately flicked switches in an attempt to fire the car back into life. Luck was on his side as the car burst back into action, and although the crew received 80 seconds of road penalties, they finished fifth in class which was enough to secure the class 2 title, but overall Group N honours went in McErlean's favour, courtesy of having more points in the overall tables!

"I crashed out of the Down Rally so I had to use Errol Clarke's car for this event," Cochrane said after the event. "The first stage was awful but as the day progressed, we became faster. Then the car cut out with the fuel pump problem and I thought it was all over. We kept playing around with the switches and it eventually fired up again. We went into stage nine not knowing Eoin was out, and I threw caution to the wind!"

The Superdrive two wheel drive category saw Martin McCormack and Noel Downey top the list in their Mark 2 Escort. They finished ninth overall in the process, while Jonny Greer and Jonny Hart were 16th in their Ford Fiesta ST. Barry Greer and John Lemon finished just outside the top 20, and 20 seconds ahead of Oran Donnelly and Paul Hughes.

The Townparks Glens of Antrim Rally marked the final round of the 2007 Pacenotes MSA Northern Ireland Stage Rally Championship. The 10 round series saw plenty of thrills and spills in the forests and closed roads of Northern Ireland. Pacenotes has renewed its sponsorship for the 2008 championship, which kicks off in February at Co. Down's Kirkistown Race Circuit with the Eurocables Stages.

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