Mcgauran, Graham and Mcgovern all put in Class topping displays
GARRY Jennings rolled out of contention on the Bushwacker Rally, but there was better news for other Fermanagh crews as three local drivers claimed class wins on the Omagh Motor Club organised event.
Damien Mcgauran, William Graham and James Mcgovern all put in class topping performances, with Caolan Mckenna navigating Conor Mccourt to seventh overall, just ahead of Jonny Leonard in eighth.
Jennings was making a rare forestry appearance in his R5 Ford Fiesta and the Kesh driver had just moved into the top ten overall after stage four when he was caught out by a square left on the Lough Braden stage.
The Fiesta ran wide and toppled off the edge of the road, coming to rest upside down.
The spectators were able to right the car and Jennings completed the stage but he had dropped two minutes and eventually finished 16th overall.
As in the Lakeland Stages Rally, Caolan Mckenna was the first
Fermanagh man home in the passenger seat of Conor Mccourt’s Skoda Fabia, 17 seconds ahead of Jonny Leonard in his Fiesta.
Prior to the event much of the talk centred around the new Lada Riva of Shane Mcgirr.
The unique car proved it was quickly on the pace of the other two wheel drive cars as the Fivemiletown driver posted second fastest time in class six on the opening stage.
The newly built Lada hit trouble on stage two, but Shane got the car back on the road for the second half of the event, and once again showed the potential of the car as he notched up three fastest stage times in his class.
One driver to benefit from Mcgirr’s early problems was class six rival Damien Mcgauran.
He set the third quickest time on stage one in his BMW and moved up to second following the Lada’s demise.
With two stages remaining Hugh Mcquaid appeared to have an unassailable lead, but his retirement on the penultimate test handed the class win to Mcgauran.
William Graham and Ben Thompson had a much more straightforward cruise to their class win.
The local pair were six seconds clear after the first stage in their Vauxhall Corsa, and they continued to open up a gap at the head of the class, leading from start to finish to take the victory by 18 seconds.
James Mcgovern and Louise Boyle started their challenge for class 2 with a third fastest time on stage one in their Corolla but by stage four they had moved into the lead, and they held on to the top spot to take the victory by 13 seconds.
Third in the same class was Drew Chambers and Wendy Blackledge in their Peugeot 206.
the performance.
“We are a lot stronger as a squad than we have been all year and that helped us.
“I felt we were sharp on the day,” he added.
Rangers started the game well and Ciaran Brough had an early effort from the edge of the box that was pushed over by the Magheraveely goalkeeper.
At the other end though the visitors were close to taking the lead as a corner came off the head of Davy Elliott and hit the bar before it was cleared.
With a quarter of an hour played though Rangers took the lead.
Richard Johnston won possession in his own half and Khan, Jake Browne and Christopher Currie were all involved before the ball was played out to Cluff. His cross was met by Khan who had continued his run and he tucked the ball away to make it 1-0.
And soon after, Rangers doubled their advantage.
Currie clipped a deep cross to the back post where it was picked up by Cluff and he eas upended with the referee pointing to the spot.
Brough stepped up and dispatched his spot kick to the back of the net to put the home side two goals to the good.
Rangers continued to probe and they extended their lead ten minutes before the interval. Browne did well to pull the ball back after breaking down the left hand side and Mcclure was on hand to sweep the ball home to leave it 3-0 at the break.
It was nip and tuck in the period after half time but the ‘Gers went on to add to their advantage.
Browne and Currie combined to release Mcclure and his cross was met by Cluff who sidefooted home for 3-0.
Magheraveely were then twice more denied by the frame of the goal as the home goal lived a charmed existence.
Kerr then made a string of changes and three of his substitutes - Adam Mcdonald, Joel Byrne and Mark Cutler - were involved in number five as Cutler fed the ball across the goal for Mcclure to turn home at the back post to leave it 5-0 at the finish.
With no league games this weekend, next up for Rangers is an Irish Junior Cup trip to Kilrea on October 1 with Maghervaeely away to Ballynure OB on the same day in the competition.