Jonny Leonard and Jackie Donaldson got off to a promising start on round 8 of the Hankook NI Rally Championship, the Bushwhacker stages rally.

Leonard snatched an early lead on the opening test; emerging 6 seconds clear of nearest Fiesta rival Stephen Wright.

This set the scene for a fantastic nip and tuck battle, the pair set equal fastest time on stage three, and stages four, five and six saw the pair swapping times with only a single second separating them on each occasion.

However, Leonards FAL Hire backed Fiesta did not appear at the end of stage 9. It later emerged that a faulty differential lead to his retirement from the event.

Commenting on the event Jonny said, “It was a real pity our rally ended on stage nine, we were having a fantastic battle with Stephen. The car seemed to pull to one side on a square right and when we tried to get the car out the ‘diff’ wasn’t working. Perhaps this was a contributing factor.”

Looking ahead to the penultimate round of the Hankook NI rally Championship the Castlewellan based Down Rally, Leonard hopes to end his run of bad luck and produce a result representative of his potential shown earlier in the season!

Speaking Prior to the event Jonny said: “I am really looking forward to the Down rally, our pace on gravel has certainly improved and I’m getting a good feel for it now.”

Jonny and Jackie now have Class one tied up in the Hankook NI Rally championship with two rounds to go. They’re focus now certainly on the Hankook Junior prize drive.

“To have our class won at this point in the championship is great, we can really push on now and up our pace, it will be interesting to see how we go!”