Garry Jennings and Rory Kennedy's defence of the Irish Tarmac Group N title suffered a setback on the Circuit of Ireland Rally this weekend after losing four minutes in a ditch on stage thirteen.
The new Autocar Logistics backed Mitsubishi Evo 9 arrived at the event sporting menacing black and silver livery and the pair made their intentions clear early on. A string of fastest Group N times launched them to a twenty second lead after just four stages and put them in an excellent fifth place overall at the second service on Saturday.
The now familiar pairing were not having it all their own way though, as James Cullen and Seamus Leonard both bettered them on the next pair of stages, the latter closing to within fourteen seconds of the class lead. Sean Devine briefly demoted Jennings to sixth position overall, but stage seven saw him move back up after Peadar Hurson retired from second.
This stage also saw a return to the duo's class winning ways, setting another unbeaten time to lead Group N and hold fifth overall at the overnight halt in Derry/Londonderry. “We've had no real problems today,” smiled Jennings, “apart from choosing a wet Kumho tyre when it turned out to be just damp in a couple of stages, the car's run faultlessly.”
The pair started the second day of competition in fine form, posting another class winning time despite a sticking throttle at the end of the 7.7 mile stage. Ahead lay two loops of three stages including two runs at the longest stage of the event, Rousky. At 16.4 miles, the daunting test didn't faze them and they posted yet more class winning times, narrowly avoiding the punctures that seemed to plague many on stage eleven.
“We damaged the wheel on a rock that must have been pulled out by the National Rally competitors, but the tyre stayed up and we kept up he pace,” explained Jennings, “but we eased off a bit in the second run through Rousky just in case.”
