Daniel slays chasing pack to win latest round of McGrady series

5 August 2015

FOURTEEN year-old Daniel Harper, from Annahilt, won the sixth round of the 2015 McGrady Insurance ANICC Junior 1000 Rally Challenge Ireland at Shackleton, near Ballykelly, for the Maiden City Motor Club’s Dogleap Stages Rally.

The junior entry was a quality one, with current English series leader Charlie Barlow joining the eight starters in his Micra.

It was to be an incredibly competitive day and any one of five drivers could have won the event, in what were extremely challenging conditions.

The Annahilt teenager, driving a Peugeot 107, took a while to settle in, as the last Junior event he contested in May lasted a matter of seconds.

Once the initial steady runs were gone through, he was able to come on to the leading pace, and take his second win of the season.

Starting at number one was Kilrea’s Josh McErlean, who is now confirmed the Junior 1000 Rally Challenge Ireland winner after his round five victory at Bishopscourt.

It’s been an excellent season for the 15 year-old, with two wins at Kirkistown, one at St Angelo and one at Bishopscourt in July.

Shackleton started off well for Josh, joint second fastest, as Peter Bennett stole the march with a time three seconds faster than anyone.

Michael McGarrity tied on time with Josh, with Harper and Philip White were a few seconds further back.

But 14 year-old Peter Bennett, who is in contention for the Scottish series, held on to a one second lead over McErlean on stage two.

A spin on stage three and an over-shoot on four meant that fifth place was the end result after another spirited attack from the Loughgall driver.

That should have left McErlean with a nice lead, but on stage three Harper got back into the groove after a long lay-off, scoring a very fast time and moving into joint second alongside McGarrity.

Philip White was putting in a fine display in his Micra, keeping in touch with the leaders and on stage four, where conditions were very wet, he too put in a stunning fastest time to move into third place.

Second fastest was McGarrity who moved into a one second lead over Harper, as McErlean struggled to the end of the test with a broken gear linkage and ped back to fourth.

The main emphasis was on the lead race between McGarrity, Harper and White, who was just four seconds off the lead going into the final two tests.

On stage five Harper took the lead, as Michael McGarrity had a half spin.

He had been on the pace all day and it was a great showing from the Glengormley driver to finish second. Third went to McErlean, who finished with the same time as White, but got the nod on a tie break.

The series heads to the Solway coast in Scotland for the final round next weekend when over 30 junior crews will go head to head.

Tweets by @TheDownRecorder