motorsport: Donagh Kelly leads from start to finish to win West Cork Rally

Kelly made it three wins in the past three years, thus equalling the feat achieved by Billy Coleman some years ago.

The Letterkenny driver at the wheel of a Ford Focus WRC finished ahead of the hard charging former British Rally Champion Keith Cronin in his Citroen and he maintains his lead at the top of the championship leaderboard.

Cronin drives one of the R5 cars and they qualify for overall championship points whereas cars such as Kelly’s can only qualify for class championship points.

Garry Jennings brought his Subaru WRC into third place and the Moffett brothers in their Fiesta R5s were involved in a terrific battle for fourth with Sam taking fourth and Roy White in a Fiesta WRC rounded off the top six.

Kelly had a lead of some 50 seconds at the conclusion of the opening day with Cronin second. Jennings had held second but a spin at a hairpin dropped him to third.

Meanwhile, Alexey Lukyanuk won the opening round of the 2016 FIA European Rally Championship after defeating the defending champion Kajetan Kajetanowicz on the final day of Rally Islas Canarias El Corte Ingles.