Stirrup’s success – Hunter’s hard luck

THE Cookstown Auto Assist Targa Rally got under way mid-morning from the spacious grounds of the Greenvale Hotel in Cookstown, with local driver Phillip Hunter, assisted by his son Bobbi, heading the field of 37 cars away in his Toyota MR2.

From Larne came Aaron Kennedy and Ashley Boulton with the number 2 on the door of their Mazda MX5, just ahead of the similar car of Matthew Walker from Greyabbey, with Laura Finlay guiding him round.

Five tests in farm lanes lay ahead, with the first of these just a mile or so from the start at Rodger’s Lane. Aaron Kennedy got off to a flying start setting fastest time of 123 seconds, followed by James Dempster (MR2), Jason Stirrup (MR2), Dougie Millar (VW Golf) and Fergus Mallon (MX5).

Test 2 was at Gourley’s Lane at Unagh, just off the Cookstown – Lough Fea Road. In a bizarre set of circumstances, Phillip Hunter’s time of 97 seconds would end up recorded as 197 seconds, although this would not become apparent until the results were posted several hours later. Jason Stirrup, partnered by Joshua Cooper on this occasion, set the fastest time here on 88 seconds, with Ronan Cox (Puma) and Paul Hughes (MX5) behind on 92 seconds.

Test 3 was an interesting use of the lanes around Lissan House. Fergus and Catrina Mallon from Crumlin set a blistering time of 88 seconds, with Jason Stirrup on 90 and Ronan Cox on 91. On the following test, just up the Lough Fea Road at McGarvey’s Lane, Phillip and Bobbi Hunter set their first fastest test time, and the only crew to come in under the 100 seconds mark at 98. Aaron Kennedy set 100 seconds, with Ronan Cox on 101, tied with Alex Conn (MX5).

Test 5 was an interesting one at The Manse just off Muff Road. Cars would start at 2 minute intervals to allow each competitor to make a complete loop within the test, and be almost at the finish of the test before the next competitor got the signal to start. This all seemed to work out well, although it spread the field out to two minutes between cars. Jason Stirrup just pipped Ronan Cox’s time of 126 seconds by 2 seconds to take the test win, and Fergus Mallon would also set 126.

Back at the Greenvale Hotel the field was closed up as much as possible before heading out to repeat the loop. Jason Stirrup held the lead with a total of 547, then Fergus Mallon on 553, Alex Conn on 562, Matthew Walker on 572 and rounding out the top 5, Ronan Cox and Joe O’Neill were on 574. Unfortunately, Dougie and Glenn Millar couldn’t make repairs to a broken engine mount on their VW Golf and this was as far as they would go.

The second run over the tests generally results in the times improving by several seconds as drivers have a much better idea where they are going and what they have to do at various places in the test. One crew making a massive improvement was that of Robert and Peter Haslett in a Toyota Yaris. This would promote them to second place overall by the end of the second loop, (10 tests), 20 seconds behind Jason Stirrup and Joshua Cooper, and 18 seconds ahead of Fergus and Catrina Mallon.

The return to the Greenvale Hotel Control again closed the field up as best it could, and the cycle through the five tests was conducted again. After that was completed, Jason Stirrup was still in the lead with 1601 seconds, The Hasletts were still second on 1645 and Ronan Cox had closed right up to just one second behind on 1646. Matthew Walker was in fourth on 1653 just 4 ahead of Alex Conn and Caitlin Miskelly on 1657.

Time was marching on, and the various delays and long re-group times had extended the event timescale beyond what the organisers had planned. One thing they did want to do was have competitors tackle a long test in the grounds of Loughry College, although not counting towards the overall results. To help reduce the timetable, the final run over the last test in the loop was cancelled.

And so Jason Stirrup and Joshua Cooper ran out winners of the Cookstown Motor Club Auto Assist Targa Rally in their Toyota MR2. Bragging rights for being fastest on the test at Loughry went to Ronan Cox and Joe O’Neill in their Ford Puma, and they would end up in second place overall in the final results.

Spare a thought for Phillip Hunter and his son Bobbi: they set the fastest time on the Loughry Test, but were deemed to touch a pylon along the way and that demoted them to 7th fastest. Were it not for the 100 second error in their times in the main event, they would have been in second place overall. A hard luck story for sure, but that’s rallying!

*Photo and report: Derek Smyth