Rally star Garry Jennings talks to Nigel Frazer about his career, to date, and his hopes for the future

SOME 20 years since his first outright rally win, Garry Jennings’ passion for rallying remains as strong as ever.

In that period, he has progressed from a Peugeot 106 through Mitsubishis and Subarus to his current Ford Fiesta R5, but the thrill of a fast stage time remains the same.

The Kesh driver claimed his first overall victory on the Ashford Rally in 2001, and he has racked up six Irish International victories, two Group N Irish Tarmac titles, an Irish Forestry Rally Championship, and in 2013 the top prize in Irish rallying – the Irish Tarmac Championship.

Garry also came close to having a shot at the big time, driving himself to the very verge of the World Rally Championship, before a change of heart from Peugeot saw his opportunity snatched from him.

It has been a remarkable rallying journey that was ignited when he saw his rallying hero, Bertie Fisher, in action.

“I used to follow the local rallies and followed the Circuit of Ireland with my father,” recalled Garry.

“I remember watching Bertie Fisher and Frank Meagher, and that made me think I would like to do it, although I never thought I would be fit to try it.

“I always played soccer and Gaelic, and I happened to buy a Peugeot 205 from a girl in the office with me, and Jon Paul Stewart and I built it.

“I think the first rally I did was the Lakeland Stages, and then we did the Toshiba Rally and the Bushwhacker, and I think I was in the top three in class in all three of them.”

The Fisher family played a key role in the very early stages of Garry’s career, with Mark Fisher and Gerry McGarrity instrumental in Garry’s purchase of a Peugeot 106, which he took to the mainland UK to contest the 106 Cup in his first full season.

“Mark had said he would take me out in it, but that never materialised,” he revealed.

“That was 2000, when there was Foot and Mouth going on, and there was no rallying really happening in Northern Ireland, so that is why I went over to do a round or two of the 106 cup to see how we got on. On the first round, we finished third and we felt we had to keep going on.

“The next round was in France and we won it, so then we kept on.

“That year we were unfortunate to be pipped on the last rally, and we finished second in the overall championship, but we won the Rookie championship and the Dealer championship.”

That early success brought a prize from Peugeot that allowed Garry to invest in an upgrade, and he bought a 206 for the 2002 season, where he again contested the one-make series, quickly establishing himself as the fastest driver in the competition on his way to another championship win.

Two seasons of success led to a funded drive in the British Rally Championship, but despite a class win on the Manx International Rally, the 2003 season was to be his last with Peugeot.

“I think the problem was that Peugeot Sport cut the funding,” he said.

“I would have loved to get on to the next step, which at that stage was World Championship events, as there was no European Rally Championship. I think if we could have got another year out of it, it might have given us a break to do a couple of WRC events.

“That was the plan but, unfortunately, it’s the way with these big companies that they decided to put their money somewhere else, and they took it off rallying.

“It’s not really a regret because I don’t think I was ready for it anyway. It was only my third year rallying, and everyone else had a lot more experience, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I wouldn’t have done it any differently.

“You always only have one driver that seems to make it in any era, and in my era, it was Kris Meeke.

“We were all there together and doing the British Championship together, and it was about who could climb the ladder, and Kris seemed to get the opportunity in my era.

“Kris was with Opel at the time, and Opel got the opportunity to do a few World Championship events whereas Peugeot pulled the pin, and I think they invested in European Touring Car instead, and cut all their funding in the rally championships.

“I still have a good relationship with them and would still be talking to them to this day. I enjoyed my time with them.

“I was probably the last one to make it up that ladder with them before they stopped, and it was great to get that opportunity.”

The end of the deal with Peugeot coincided with Garry’s decision to open his own business, and the commitment involved in self-employment led to him deciding to focus on events closer to home.

‘Started my own business’

“In the British Championship I was away at some promotional event nearly every weekend and I was always over in England,” he recalled. “It was hard to do, and then the following year I started up my own business, so I took a step back then.

“I remember having a conversation with Ivan Fisher when I started up my own business and he said if I was starting up my own business, then I would have to forget about the rallying for a while.

“I was very fortunate that I was still able to keep working and rallying from home at the same time.”

He purchased a Mitsubishi and mounted a challenge for the 2005 Group N Irish Tarmac Championship, taking class wins on the Circuit of Ireland and Donegal on his way to the title.

A one-off drive on the 2006 Ulster Rally in a World Rally Car, where he finished third overall, showed he had the pace to match the country’s top drivers when he was in similar machinery, but he spent the few seasons back in his Group N car, winning the Group N title again in 2011.

Loose surface events

Away from the tarmac stages, 2012 was the year Garry decided to contest the Irish Forestry Championship and he demonstrated his speed on the loose surface events in a Subaru Impreza 555 – a car he admits still holds a fond place in his heart.

“It was the only car I regret ever selling. I would love to have it now to go and do it again,” he admitted.

“When I won the forestry, it was 20 years old, so it would be 30 years old now, and I still think it would be capable of winning a forestry championship. It was just a typical driver’s car.

“It was the same car that Bertie Fisher and Andrew Nesbitt drove back in their heyday in the late 1990s. It’s just a proper car.

“I was sort of losing my appetite back then, but it brought that appetite back and got me back into it again.”

2012 also brought Garry’s breakthrough win on an International rally. He hired a Subaru for his favourite event – Donegal – and brought the car home over a minute ahead of the chasing pack.

“Donegal has to be my favourite rally,” he acknowledged. “I think I am maybe in the top five most successful drivers in Donegal. I only have two wins, but I must have been on the podium half a dozen times.

“It’s like a local rally because it is not too far from us, and of all the rallies in Europe it probably gets the biggest following.

“No matter where you go, France or Belgium or wherever, when you meet people they always ask about Donegal.”

Garry returned to his Group N car for the remainder of that season and was challenging for the overall Tarmac Championship win right up to the final round of the series, but was not able to make it to the final round of the series after exhausting his budget.

“I had a chance of overall victory after I took the WRC car to Donegal, but it took that much money, I hadn’t got the budget to do Cork,” he said. “No matter how we were driving, we knew we weren’t going to beat the boys in the World Rally Cars unless it was in the wet or the snow, where we could put it up to them.

“As it panned out, the weather was so bad that maybe I could have won it, but I hadn’t the budget put together, and I didn’t want to jeopardise getting the Subaru for the start of the next season.

“People say it’s never over until it’s over, and maybe I could have won it. It is one of my regrets, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

That near-miss inspired Garry to invest in a World Rally Car for 2013, and it was a decision that was rewarded in his first season, despite an uncertain start to the year.

‘A disastrous start’

“We had a disastrous start, and we were sixth overall in Killarney,” he recalled.

“We were nowhere. The car was in left-hand drive, and I wondered if we had taken a step in over our heads.

“Fortunately for us, the Circuit of Ireland was the next rally, but it was cancelled due to the heavy snow that year, and the money we saved by not doing the rally allowed us to convert the car to right-hand drive.

“The next rally after that was Killarney, and we won it. We went on to win Donegal and the Ulster, and that gave us the Tarmac Championship.”

Garry went on to win the Ulster Rally the following year, and soon added further international successes with a second Donegal win and two victories in Galway, before travelling to France and winning two rounds of the French championship. Despite that success, a second Tarmac title has remained elusive.

“Once you have won it and reached the peak it is hard to set yourself a new goal, so it has been very hard to win it again,” he admitted.

“I always wanted to win Internationals, and to win Donegal was always something I wanted to do, but a lot of people win rallies, and it is very hard to put it all together to win the Tarmac Championship.

“It was great to be able to do it. I had won the forestry championship in 2012, and it was nice to be able to put the two together and win them back to back.”

Although Garry’s business commitments have seen his rallying career take a back seat in recent years, he has recently purchased a Ford Fiesta R5 and he hopes to get back in action as soon as rallying returns.

He can approach his sport with a more relaxed attitude than in previous years, but he admits he still has hopes of securing more rally wins, and maybe even another Championship.

“I just pick at rallies now and try to win them. I do it now for fun, and whatever the family say, we go and do it.

“It’s more about us enjoying it and not taking it too seriously, but we have done a few days out in the seat of the new car, and it’s not over yet.

“Not by a long way.”