The Cashel man left home with a six point lead in the Petro Systems Forest Championship and when he reached the podium on Saturday evening he had extended his lead over John Reid to twenty seven points.
Donegal’s first ever counter in the National Forest Championship was based in Donegal town. Ten special stages were planned, four in the east of the county near Pettigo and six more north of the town near Barnesmoe gap. There were 65 competitive kilometres on offer, despite the loss of the last stage.
O’ Connell was fastest out of the blocks on Saturday morning, setting fastest times on the first pair of stages. However on stage 3 the gearbox jammed in the Evo9 and on stage 5 he bent a wishbone. As a result he dropped down the order to third at the finish, but with a tranche of maximum points in the bag.
Daragh Kelly made a cautious start in his Evo9,but he speeded up to lead the rally after stage 4, and with four fastest times to his credit he went on to win the rally by 11 seconds. A popular win for the local driver.
Second overall was claimed by the Impreza of Mark Donnelly, who was making his four wheel drive rally debut. Better known for his exploits in Fiestas and C2R2s, Donnelly punched in a number of great times including three fastest times. He got to within 7 seconds of Kelly in the later stages, but could not close the deal. Second is a great result for the young Omagh driver.
For Colin Britton fourth place was a case of what might have been. He led the rally after stage three, and he was very quick all day but a spin on stage 7 cost a him a minute, and the former forestry Group N champion finished fourth.
Escorteers Frank Kelly and Adrian Hethrington had a day long fight in their Mk2’s, Kelly winning the battle and the two wheel drive duel by a mere three seconds. They were fifth and sixth.
James Coleman (Escort) and Mick Cuddihy (Starlet) did their championship positions a power of good with 7th and 9th respectively, the latter winning class three as well. Other drivers who did their championship aspirations huge favours were: Mark Murphy (Impreza), Sean Benskin (Escort), Mick Nevin (Escort), Andrew Fanning (Ka) and John Quill (206).
The principal retirements were Christy Carey Drive (shaft) and Shay Power (gearbox) on stage 2. On stage 5 John Mc Loughlin’s gearbox left go, and John Reid suffered heartbreak when his Corolla WRC retired-for the first time in 18 events-with broken steering. The Dubliner is still second in the championship but he now has a mountain to climb to catch the flying O’Connell, who has a maximum score on each of the four events held.
