Shane McGirr claimed a class win in his Lada Riva on his home rally, surviving a mid-rally puncture to dominate class six on the Samsonas Fivemiletown Spring Rally.
The highest placed Fermanagh finisher over the classic gravel stages was Caolan McKenna, who navigated Conor McCourt to fourth overall, but for some time it appeared that Jonny Leonard may be the driver to beat.
The Ballinamallard driver set the third fastest time on the opening test and had slipped down to sixth after the second stage, but a remarkable stage three time put him back into contention.
A run over the Jenkin stage that was over five seconds quicker than anyone leapfrogged him up into second spot, just half a second shy of early leader Mark Donnelly.
His hopes of victory were abruptly ended on stage four, however. Leonard picked up a puncture in his Rally2 Fiesta, and that led to an off road excursion, sliding off the road and into retirement.
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McGirr was another driver to suffer a puncture on stage four of the rally, but the consequences were less dramatic for the Fivemiletown driver.
Having set the fastest time in his class on each of the first three tests, he recovered from dropping time on stage four to post the quickest time on each of the remaining stages as he eased to yet another class success.
The troublesome stage four also spelled the end of any hopes of a class podium for Enniskillen pair Dominic Leonard and Martin Baxter.
They had taken their Mitsubishi to third in class eight before problems on the first running of the Doon stage dropped them to ninth, before a third quickest time on the final stage eventually lifted them to seventh.
In contrast, Drew Chambers and Wendy Blackledge took the lead of class two on the fourth stage, and they never relinquished it, taking the class win in their Peugeot 206 by over one minute.
James McGovern and Louise Boyle were the early front runners in class two in their Toyota Corolla, and set the fastest time on six of the eight stages, but dropped time on stages either side of the mid-event service dropped them to third in class.
Kris Farrell claimed second in class three in his Proton Satria, with Chris Corry taking third in class three and Damien McGauran finishing fifth in class six.
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