McGarrity leads the Jim Clark rally in Scotland

Northern Ireland’s, Derek McGarrity and his Athlone co-driver, Dermot O’Gorman, in a Subaru World Car are the overnight leaders of the Jim Clark Rally, a counting round of both the Toshiba Computers Irish Tarmac Championship and the Pirelli British Rally Championship.

Fri, 12 Jul, 2002 - 23:08

The Antrim driver took control of the rally after the first two opening stages and gradually eked clear of his rivals. Initially, it was Andrew Nesbitt (Subaru WRC) who led the challenge, but he slipped back to fourth over the closing stages and is now over a minute off top spot.

Jonny Milner (Toyota Corolla WRC) is McGarrity’s nearest rival beginning tomorrow’s 13 stages with

Wexford’s, Eamonn Boland some 18 seconds adrift.

Today’s major retirement was that of Peadar Hurson, holding fourth on the leader board, he slid his Toyota Celica ST205 off in wet conditions on the fourth stage.

In the Super 1600 category, Donegal’s Stuart Darcy rolled his Ford Puma on the very first stage. The

category is being led by Gwyndaf Evans and his Northern Ireland co-driver, Chris Patterson (MG ZR).

Rory Galligan (County Meath) in the works Peugeot is third.

Another Irish driver, Garry Jennings, from Ballinamallard leads the Peugeot 206 Cup contenders.

1. D. McGarrity/D. O'Gorman (Subaru WRC) 40m. 42.2s.

2. J. Milner/N. Beech (Toyota Corolla WRC) 40m. 55.5s.

3. E. Boland/D. Morrissey (Subaru WRC) 41m. 13.6s.

4. A. Nesbitt/J. O'Brien (Subaru WRC) 41m. 42.3s.

5. R. Woodside-D. Beckett (Subaru WRC) 41m. 49.5s.

6. A. McHale/B. Murphy (Toyota Corolla WRC) 42m.

01.6s.

7. T. NcNulty/A. Nestor (Subaru) 42m. 35.9s.