Tough, but smaller Northern Lights

Although they had to cancel three sections of the route, reducing total mileage from 210 to 190 miles, the Mid-Antrim Motor Club’s Northern Lights Rally on Jan 19/20, proved a tough but enjoyable event for the 72 starters, of whom 28 managed to reach the finish at the Deerpark Hotel, Antrim.

With snow and slush a major problem throughout this, the second round in the Northern Ireland Rally Championship, it was soon apparent that the event was going to be tough on crews and also on the long suffering marshals, right from the start near Ballymena.

Winner, after a long, hard night was David Agnew and his navigator Robert Harkness in their VW 1303 who dropped 60 m 15 s to be decisive winners ahead of Leslie White/Drew Todd who dropped 68 m 14s in their Escort TC.

As a result, White/Todd and Agnew/Harkness are now joint leaders in the championship. The White/Todd crew have two second places while Agnew/Harkness were fourth on the Snowplough Rally a fortnight ago.

Third overall with the loss of 71 m 4 s came Sean Campbell/Peter Scott, who found their 3-litre Capri a handful under the conditions and in fourth place came the Dublin entry of Miss Sue Sinclair/Paul Phelan in their BMW 2002 on 85 m 38 s. This was a good result which surprised many, although Phelan was Rally Champion last year.

Leading the semi-experts class were Jimmy Ogg/Fred Gallagher in their Cooper S on 104 m 56 s who finished fifth overall. The best novice crew was Dan Doherty/Brian Montgomery in a Cooper S who dropped 231 m 50 s.