14-03-09: Glengormley's Derek McGarrity and James McKee raced away with their second successive victory at the McGrady Insurance Stages on Saturday, round two of the Hankook MSA N.I. Stage Rally Championship!

The Ballynahinch Motor Club event, which was based near Downpatrick at Bishopscourt Race Circuit, attracted a full capacity entry of 120 crews. And there was an action-packed start to the day when Raymond Johnston's car caught fire, and Eoin McErlean overturned into a field!

Thankfully, marshals were able to extinguish the fire before it was too late but the incidents forced organisers to award most crews nominal times for the rally opener. At least that worked in favour of McErlean, who was able to get back on all four wheels and complete the event!

At the top of the leaderboard, there were no such troubles for Derek McGarrity. He put in another faultless drive to lead from start to finish in his Subaru Impreza WRC. For the second year in succession at Bishopscourt, and indeed the second event in a row this year, the Glengormley pilot was simply unbeatable.

"It wasn't a bad day," McGarrity said after the event. "It was fun, and it's a really enjoyable place for a rally!"

Rivals Connor McCloskey and Francis Regan made a wrong tyre choice for the opening stage and spun their Focus, immediately handing McGarrity a 13 second advantage. In the end, that made little difference, as 2002 champion McGarrity went on to take a full complement of fastest stage times to win by almost half a minute, leaving Kilrea's McCloskey to settle for second.

"We had a wrong tyre choice on the first stage and had a bit of a spin," McCloskey admitted. "After that, we were second quickest all day so I'm happy enough. There was nothing we could do about that other man!"

Omagh's Seamus Leonard and John McCafferty took the final podium position in their Subaru Impreza WRC. As a newcomer to the Hankook Championship, Leonard is building his experience of circuit based events, so third was a satisfying result for the former Irish Tarmac Group N champion.

"It turned out well," Leonard said at the finish. "The rally was sore on tyres and I'm still getting used to these racing lines on circuits - that's something new to me. But I'm happy enough with the result!"

Outside the top three, George Robinson and Tommy Speers were a consistent fourth fastest in their older specification Impreza WRC. The Ballymena based crew were pleased to be trading times with younger specification cars, and finished comfortably ahead of Denis Biggerstaff and Damian McCann.

"We had a pretty clean run all day," Robinson said afterwards. "The tyres went off a wee bit at times but apart from that, it was good. We finished among the S9 Imprezas so I'm happy with that."

Two-times champion Biggerstaff finished fifth overall but couldn't explain his lack of pace. He lost 20 seconds during the opening stage after hitting a bank, but was never really on song throughout the event.

"The car was pushing the nose like a pig all day," Biggerstaff rued. "It was a disappointing day, I just don't know what the problem is. We'll take a look at the car when we get back home."

Banbridge's young lady driver, Emma McKinstry, enjoyed another solid drive in her Impreza WRC. Navigated by Kenny Hull, she was ecstatic with another top six position!

"We had a fantastic day," McKinstry enthused. "The tyres have been absolutely super, although we used a set almost every two stages. It was good fun!"

Coming home in seventh position, Kieron Graffin and Dermot Fahy encountered a few problems along the way. Graffin admitted to having only two clean stages after being held up by other crews on four of the six tests, but he still took seventh ahead of Ray Brammer and Matt Whattam, who were lucky to survive a high speed spin during the fifth stage.

Sunoco Fuels Group N category

There was fiery start to the Sunoco Fuels Group N category when Raymond Johnston's car caught fire on the opening stage. A seemingly harmless incident at the first corner quickly caused round one winner Johnston some major concerns.

"I think we hit a couple of car tyres on the long left-hander after the start," Johnston explained. "It really wasn't a big incident but unfortunately it fractured the oil cooler which sprayed oil between the engine and the sump guard. Further around the circuit, she caught fire and only for the marshals using their big extinguisher, I probably would have lost the car."

With Johnston out of the event, a new name was destined to top the Sunoco Fuels Group N podium. Reigning champion Cathal Rogers was hotly tipped to take the spoils but he made a few bad tyre choices which dropped him down the order.

Instead, the battle went down to the wire between three men. Mark Massey, Alan Burrows and John Walker. Only a handful of seconds separated the three crews but in the end, victory and ninth overall were awarded to Mark Massey and Alan Purdy. Donagh Kelly and Kevin Flanagan finished just three seconds adrift in 10th overall, while Alan and Gavin Burrows were a further two seconds behind.

Superdrive 2WD category

There was another close battle in the Superdrive two-wheel-drive category between three crews. In a tussle that went right down to the wire, Trevor Moore, Camillus Bradley and event sponsor Fintan McGrady were all fighting for honours.

It was Bradley who entered the final stage with the upper-hand but he caught another competitor on the test and lost vital seconds. Trevor Moore and Ray Fitzpatrick capitalised and a stunning time saw them nab the category victory by three seconds from Bradley and Danny O'Neill, with Fintan McGrady and Gary Rodgers taking third.

Montgomery Motorsport Historic category

Philip Hunter and Denver Rafferty claimed another category victory in the Montgomery Motorsport Historic category. They took their Mark 2 Escort to the top of the podium, while Alan Jardine and Jim McSherry were the best of the rest in their beautiful Mark 1 Escort. They finished a little more than 20 seconds ahead of Tommy O'Connell and Sean Magee, with Philip McDowell and Mark Stirling fourth.

Round three - Larsen Circuit of Ireland

After the opening two circuit based events, competitors will now face the closed roads of the Larsen Circuit of Ireland Rally at Easter! The two-day event takes place over 11/12 April, with stages based in County Down and County Armagh.

In the meantime, round one of the Hankook MSA N.I. Stage Rally Championship will be broadcast on UTV's RPM Motorsport programme at 11pm on Thursday 26 March. Make sure you tune in to catch all the action from the Eurocables Stages.