Saturday 5^th June saw Jonny Leonard and Jackie Donaldson take to the stages once again on the Modern Tyres Mourne Stages Rally.
The crew set off on Saturday morning from Modern Tyres Newry base to tackle SS1, the challenging Slieve Gullion test.

Running directly behind fellow Fiesta crew of Stephen Wright and Paul McGee, the Co. Fermanagh pairing took off into the test with a sharp and steady run through the stage in mind. However, around three miles into the stage they had to grind their FAL HIRE backed Fiesta to a halt as they came across the stricken Fiesta of Stephen Wright. Wrights car had blocked the stage, but thankfully the crew were OK.

On SS2 Leonards Hankook shod Fiesta stopped the clocks on a time of 08.49, a clear 32 seconds faster than now second placed Phillip Ewart in his similar fiesta.

The crew now having a clear lead in Class 1 they set out to tackle the 6 remaining stages with a mature approach, and valuable championship points the main objective.

A clean run through the remaining stages saw Jonny and Jackie take their Fiesta home in 32^nd overall and with class win number 4 in the bag. They also managed to secure the M-Sport parts bonus award of £150 parts vouchers as leading Fiesta crew.

Commenting on round 5 of the Hankook NI Rally Championship Leonard said:
“It was disappointing that Stephen had such hard luck, I’m sure we would have had a good battle. But I had a great event. The car performed well, and the Hankook tyres were perfect, I really enjoyed it”
Jonny and Jackie now lead class one on 57 points, 23 points clear of Philip Ewart and sit 3^rd in the Hankook Group N standings, thanks to a string of mature and consistent performances which will hopefully achieve some admiration in their bid for the Hankook junior prize drive.

With a break of a few weeks now in the NI championship, the car will be changed to gravel set-up in preparation for round 6 the Dogleap stages on the 7^th of August.

Jonny commented: “I’m really looking forward to the gravel rounds of the championship, its good to have a variety of surfaces, maybe not what I’m used to but it should be great fun”