By 
NIALL McGonigle got his hands back on the Omagh Motor Club Samsonas Motorsport Fivemiletown Rally title on Saturday.
The Clady man, who had Caolan McKenna – who delayed going on holiday for the occasion – was one of the driving forces behind bringing the event back to the Irish motorsport calendar in 2019, and having won it for the first time in 2024, he was determined to experience that feeling again, particularly after missing out on retaining his crown in November when a gear linkage issue on stage one put paid to his challenge.
On Saturday, there was another early casualty as defending champion, Greencastle’s Mark Donnelly and Omagh co-driver Martin Brady damaged a wheel on stage two after engineering a four second lead on the first stage.
That left McGonigle in the driving seat – metaphorically and literally- and he toom full advantage, engineering a healthy lead over Ballygalwey’s Vivian Hamill in a new Rally2 Skoda Fabia, who had to settle for second in the end, finishing almost 20 seconds behind the winning Volkswagen Polo of McGonigle, while David Condell was third in another Fabia.
“All wins feel good, it’s always good to get a win,” McGonigle beamed at the finish. “It’s hard to know if they all feel like the first one, but it’s always good to get another one!
“Our plan was never to start mental. We knew the first two stages were going to be so, so, so tricky so I was happy enough losing a bit of time, four seconds to Mark on the first one, because we were waiting to the third [stage] to give it a rattle and then we just managed it from there.
“But to be fair, Vivian was going well too, but there was no mad push on. It was good to get it.”
After regaining his title, McGonigle, who now leads the Brown & Brown Motorsport UK NI Rally, was full of praise of the organising Omagh Motor Club who had to turn things around quickly after running the 2025 event just four months earlier.
“The rally itself was unbelievable, the club did a good job and the format was brilliant. The stages were brilliant and that Jenkin stage is one of the best in Ireland,” he added.
Outside the top three, there were some sensational performances, most notably from class four winner, Aoife Rafferty and Ditte Kammersgaard who brought their Rally3 Ford Fiesta home in a stunning fifth place overall, just behind Conor Wilson’s Hyundai i20 and ahead of Fivemiletown’s Shane McGirr, who won the two-wheel-drive event with Denver Rafferty in their Lada Riva, while Dromore’s Hugh McQuaid had to settle for second, with James Kennedy third.
Meanwhile, Strabane’s Martin Cairns and Gareth Doherty took seventh overall, one place in front of Drumquin’s Dean Humphrey, while Omagh’s Paul Maguire and Cookstown’s Owen Mallon rounded out the top 10.
In the classes, Humphrey won class two in his Mitsubishi Evo IX from Maguire’s Impreza with Travis Humphrey third in an Evo X. McGirr won class three from Moy’s Shane Cullen in a Mk II Ford Escort, while Ashley Rutledge was third in a BMW E46. McQuaid and co-driver Enda Gerety won class six in their Mk II Ford Escort, finishing ahead of James Kennedy and Ardboe’s Kevin Quinn, while Fintona’s World Rally Championship co-driver Aaron Johnston was the class eight winner with Mac Walsh on the notes in their Toyota Corolla, finishing ahead of Lifford’s Mickey Joe Browne and Donemana’s Mark Moore’s Honda Civics.
Noel Vallely won class nine in another Corolla, while David Dennison was the historic winner ahead of Nigel Creagh.
Full results via rallyscore.net.
