GREER SAVES HIS BEST UNTIL LAST AT BISHOPSCOURT’S BATTLE
Having run second for most of the day, Jonathan Greer found an extra gear to preserve his perfect start to this year’s Northern Ireland Rally Championship with a win at Bishopscourt.
Guilty of making a few sloppy mistakes early on, Greer stuck to the task in hand and managed to unlock some crucial extra speed from his car with small but important set-up changes.
The margins after eight stages and 35 competitive miles were fine, with the
Carryduff man winning in County Down by just 3.7 seconds with Niall Burns co-driving the Citroen C3 Rally2.
Greer blitzed long-time leader and eventual runner-up Aaron McLaughlin (Volkswagen Polo GTi R5) on the penultimate test as he covered it nearly five seconds quicker to leapfrog the Donegal man before recording another scratch time on the deciding run to safeguard the result.
Third went the way of Junior British Rally champions Kyle White and Sean Topping who were non-movers during the course of the rally in their Hyundai i20 R5 as they continue their preparations for the opening round of the British Rally Championship. That was despite White being unable to avoid a tyre that had been dragged onto the racing line.
Philip Allen was another who hit a stray tyre with the impact causing significant cosmetic damage to his Volkswagen Polo
GTI R5. Patched up, he went on to punch in consistent times to finish fourth ahead of
Jason Dickson who, incredibly, also had the misfortune of coming into contact with a tyre.
In the two-wheel-drive battle, Barry Morris led home the pack despite being handicapped by a persistent misfire with his tricked-out Darrian T90 GTR+. Even though his car was not on full song, he still finished comfortably in front of the Ford Escort Mk2 of his nearest challenge John Bradley.