Garry Jennings and Brian Hoy both crashed out of the Rally of the Lakes in Killarney, with Kesh’s Dave Moynihan upholding Fermanagh honours as he navigated Matt Edwards to second overall behind winner Callum Devine. 

Jennings was holding onto a top 10 spot before he collided with a chicane, and Brian Hoy, navigating for Cathan McCourt, was in sixth place before sliding into a stone wall and exiting the rally on day two.

Edwards and Moynihan were in sixth after the opening stage but by stage three had moved up to third behind Devine and early leader Keith Cronin.

By stage six Cronin had extended his lead to over 30 seconds, but he hit trouble with a puncture on the next test, dropping over two minutes and elevating Moynihan to second.

With the leader in their sights they mounted a charge over the closing stages, and went into the penultimate stage having reduced the gap to Devine to under 10 seconds, but despite setting the fastest time on the final stage they could not overhaul the leader and had to settle for second.

Jennings had not contested the Rally of the Lakes for 13 years but immediately put his Ford Fiesta inside the top 10, finishing day one in tenth position.

He got caught on the wrong tyres for Sunday’s opening stages, with his rally coming to a premature end on stage 11.

“I had a harder tyre on than anyone else on the Sunday morning loop and so I lost a bit, but I thought I would push on in the last stage of the loop,” Garry explained.

“I got caught out on a chicane. I went in too deep and couldn’t get stopped and unfortunately there were silo bales there. The tyres were too hard, and it was cold and they hadn’t bedded down, and it just skidded on top of the ground.

"I got through two of the bales but I caught the next bale head on, and that was the end of that. We had to just turn her off. I was really happy with the car, and I really enjoyed it, but it was a pity about the wee shunt. I will get her fixed. That is the first time in a long time that I have marked her.”

Brian Hoy was another to have his Killarney rally come to a sudden and unplanned end. Hoy and Cathan McCourt had held seventh overall after the first day’s action and moved up to sixth early on Sunday, but on stage 12 they were caught out by a right-hand bend, beaching their Fiesta on a stone wall.