Stephen Wright finished the top Monaghan man on the opening round of the McGrady Insurance Motorsport UK Northern Ireland Rally Championship. The Orchard Motorsport Kirkistown Stages Rally took place on the Kirkistown racing circuit in County Down. At the end of the six stages, Wright finished 4th overall, 15.3 seconds off the lead in what was a disappointing finish after a positive start to a very wet rally. Wright with Ger Conway on the notes took the lead after a soaking wet Stage 1 which included catching another car and being momentarily held up. Jonny Greer/Darragh Mullen finished the stage second fastest in their Citroen C3 just 1.4s slower than the Ford Fiesta of Wright/Conway. Greer had his own dramas on the stage, when he was held up by Kenny McKinstry/Sean Topping who had a steamed up window and were unable to negotiate the stage. On SS2 rally leader Wright again caught another car, this time for a full lap of the circuit which cost him almost 9s seconds. This huge time loss allowed Greer to go into the lead, some 7.3 seconds faster than Wright.
Wright/Conway had a dramatic start to SS3 when a sensor on their Fiesta R5 started to give trouble and the crew only just managed to reach the stage start on time. Greer again set a fastest time to extend his lead to 10.6s. Wright set a 4th fastest stage time and this left only 0.2s between himself and Philip Allen/Emily Turkington in third. On SS4 Derek McGarrity/ Graham Henderson set the fastest time on a very slippy stage. Greer only managed to set the 3rd fastest time on the stage to have his lead trimmed to 9.1s over Allen who had overtaken Wright who struggled on the shiny tar and could only set a 5th fastest time. Wrights poor time dropped him to 4th OA with McGarrity also overtaking him to go into 3rd. On the penultimate stage, McGarrity/Henderson once again set the fastest time to cut the distance to Allen/Turkington to 1.1s. Greer/Mullen set the 3rd fastest stage time to hold an overall lead of 8.6s with just one stage to go. Wright again could only set a 5th fastest stage time to leave just 2.1s between himself and Darren Gass/Marc McMillin in 5th.
On the final stage McGarrity set his 3rd fastest stage time of the day to overtake Allen and finish 2nd, just 4.6s off Greer who backed off over the last stage to avoid any last minute drama like what had happened him during a rally the previous year, when a final stage puncture cost him the victory. Allen commented after the stage that he tried too hard and this resulted in silly mistakes which ultimately cost him time. Wright could only set a 6th fastest time on the stage but luckily enough Gass only set a time of 0.2s faster, so Wright was able to hold onto 4th overall. Gary McCrudden navigating for Alan Smith finished 29th OA and 2nd Class 7.
