Round 9 of the Hankook MSA NI Rally Championship came in the shape of the FM Contracts down rally based in the small town of Castlewellan.

Having already sewn up class honours by round 7 of the championship Jonny Leonard along with co-driver Jackie Donaldson had no real pressure going into the penultimate round.

Leonard set a good pace on the opening test, the tricky Rostrevor stage with a time good enough for 19^th overall.

Stage two on the other hand didn’t go so well, the Fermanagh man having a small off in the stage, but thankfully damage was minimal and the crew still held the lead in class one.

Resuming form on the following two stages Leonard set stage times inside the top twenty. However, things seemed to deteriorate in the later part of the day with a drone in the gearbox of the FAL Hire backed Fiesta getting progressively worse.

This didn’t help the youngster’s confidence and focus soon shifted to nursing the car home.

Indeed when the crew arrived at the final service halt even finishing the event was looking bleak, as gear oil ran from the little Fiesta. Rodney at RGD Motorsports tried his best in the twenty minute service to cure the problem but warned to be careful with the box.

The final two stages were to be a damage limitation exercise, as the last round of the championship was scheduled for only two weeks away!

The crew battled through the remaining two tests to arrive home 21^st overall and the only remaining finishers in class one.

Commenting on the event Jonny said: “I’ve never been as glad to finish an event! I was cringing with every gear change towards the end. The off on Stage two unsettled us a little, and just as I was starting to get back into a bit of a rhythm the gear box problem started which was disappointing but I was lucky to even finish the event, so I’m happy with that.”