DODD CLINCHES CHAMPIONSHIP IN KILLARNEY
Marcus Dodd and Andrew Bargery were crowned the 2007 Hankook MSA Gravel Rally Champions as they finished as the first championship registered crew and second overall on The Malton Killarney Forestry Stages Rally today (Sunday 2 September).

Dodd and Bargery finished just 15 seconds behind event winner and 2007 Hankook Irish National Forestry Rally champions Stephen Moore and Greg Shinnors in their Hyundai Accent WRC to claim the title for a third time and wrap-up the honours with one round still remaining.

Their closest title rivals, Steve Perez and Claire Mole, finished second in the championship and third overall in their Ford Focus WRC, just 51 seconds behind Dodd/Bargery. Perez had lost around 50 seconds on stage one with a puncture to put him 14th on the leaderboard but he managed to haul himself back up to fourth overall after stage four before eventually climbing to third.

“It’s been rough, but we had a steady run and no problems,” Dodd said. “It would have been nice to have had more of a go at the locals but we had to think about the championship. For a few seconds it would have been stupid to try too hard and throw it all away, we were here to beat Steve (Perez).

“I’m elated to win the championship for a third time. It’s great to win it on the penultimate round but it would have been nice to take it down to the final round, the Bulldog Rally, as that’s a bit special to me.”

Subaru crew Jock Armstrong and Kirsty Riddick finished third in the championship, fifth overall and the already crowned Subaru Trophy champions won the trophy section and were second Group N overall as they had a smooth run across the 120km of forest gravel stages, which were slippery following a steady drizzle throughout the day.

Jonathan Sparks and Bradley Magnus brought home their Mitsubishi Evo 7 12th overall and fifth in class eight with a problem-free run whilst Harry Dodd and Richard Skinner were the final MSA National Championship crew to be classified as they finished 23rd overall and fourth in class seven in their Hyundai Accent WRC after struggling without a turbo for five of the seven stages.

Eight MSA National Gravel Rally Championship crews made the start of the Killarney-based rally, which was included in the series calendar for the first time. Alan Cookson and Julian Wilkinson retired on stage five with a broken front suspension on their Subaru Impreza after earlier losing their brakes, while Trevor Martin and Ray Cleghorn failed to finish as they went off on stage four in their Subaru. Rod Bennett and Henry Richardson broke the driveshaft on their Fiat Stilo in stage five.

Despite the title already been claimed, there are still plenty of class honours to fight for on the final round of the 2007 Hankook MSA Gravel Rally Championship, the Oswestry-based Bulldog Rally which takes place on Saturday 20 October.

Championship Positions and other information is available at www.gravelrally.co.uk.