One second became 7.7: Greer and Burns win dramatic Dogleap Rally finale
Jonny Greer and Niall Burns took the Dogleap Rally after moving ahead late, while a final-stage incident removed their nearest challenger.
Jonny Greer and Niall Burns took the Dogleap Rally after moving ahead late, while a final-stage incident removed their nearest challenger.
The lead changed hands more than once
The Premier Car Parts Dogleap Rally was not a straightforward start-to-finish victory. Jonny Greer and Niall Burns won the County Londonderry gravel event in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, but their result followed a changing lead fight, a puncture for an early challenger and a late off for the crew they were chasing.
Greer’s winning total was 33 minutes 37.4 seconds, 7.7 seconds faster than runners-up Niall Devine and Liam McIntyre. Jordan and Paul Hone finished third, 44.0 seconds off the winning time. Those final gaps hide how close the leading contest was before the last stage.
From Hone to Dickson
Jordan and Paul Hone began fastest on the opening Loughermore West stage in their Skoda. Stephen Dickson then went ahead on the second stage and was 3.8 seconds in front of Hone after the third. Greer sat third, five seconds away from the lead at that point.
The opening sequence matters because it shows that the eventual winner initially had to work through the field. It also demonstrates how stage rallies reward repeated pace rather than a single standout split.
Cam stage turns the battle
On the first pass through the 7.1-mile Cam test, Greer set the pace and reduced the gap to Dickson to 3.5 seconds. Hone suffered a puncture and fell to eighth. The route then reused the same stage roads, creating a second chance for competitors to respond to the morning’s lessons and problems.
By the penultimate stage Greer had moved ahead of Dickson by only a second. A margin that small is vulnerable to virtually any driving error, surface change or mechanical issue, but none can be assigned as the cause of a result without supporting evidence.
Final-stage reversal
Dickson went off on the final stage, ending the expected head-to-head finish. Greer also had a moment but completed the run and secured the win. Devine emerged second in the Volkswagen Polo GTi R5, while the Hones recovered through the second loop to the final podium position.
It would be misleading to portray the final 7.7-second victory margin as a measure of Greer’s advantage over Dickson at the decisive moment. The direct battle was separated by a single second before the last stage, and Dickson did not finish in that position.
The order behind the podium
Alan Smyth and Emmet Sherry were fourth in a Volkswagen Polo R5, followed by Vivian Hamill and Paddy Robinson in a Skoda. David Condell and Michael Coady came home sixth while claiming the forest challenge title. Craig Rahill and Darragh Mullen were seventh in a Ford Fiesta Rally3, an important result in a field headed by Rally2 machinery.
PureCar’s result summary uses the published final classification and separates the event winner from the championship winner. It also avoids calling any split or leaderboard position official unless that specific result is reported.
The early leader was not the eventual winner
Jordan and Paul Hone set the quickest time on Loughermore West, the opening stage, in a Skoda Fabia Rally2. Their early advantage did not last: a puncture on the first passage through Cam dropped them to eighth. They recovered through the second half of the rally and eventually completed the overall podium. That recovery is an important part of the narrative. The finish sheet alone shows a third-place result, but it hides the setbacks and pace that brought the crew back towards the front.
How the final Cam stage changed the headline
Stephen Dickson had held the advantage for much of the event, before Greer and Burns reached the final Cam stage with a one-second lead. Dickson then went off the road, ending the direct contest that had promised a close finish. Greer was not entirely untouched by trouble: contemporary reporting describes the Toyota running into a ditch and bouncing out. The important distinction is that the winner negotiated his moment without losing the overall result, while Dickson did not reach the same finish outcome.
Seven-point-seven seconds, not a seven-second winning move
The recorded winning margin was 7.7 seconds over Niall Devine and Liam McIntyre, who drove a Volkswagen Polo R5. It would be misleading to describe the whole 7.7-second margin as a direct last-stage gain over Dickson: once Dickson was out of the running, the final classification compared Greer with Devine. A proper stage reconstruction must keep these two comparisons separate. Greer and Dickson were the close fight entering the finale; Greer and Devine were first and second in the published result.
The battle immediately behind the podium
Alan Smyth and Emmet Sherry claimed fourth in a Volkswagen Polo R5, with Vivian Hamill and Paddy Robinson fifth in a Skoda Fabia Rally2. Condell and Coady came sixth in another Fabia, securing the Forest Challenge title in the process. Craig Rahill and Darragh Mullen were seventh in a Ford Fiesta Rally3, and Casey Jay Coleman with Killian McArdle took eighth. The breadth of the top ten matters because the Dogleap entry was not simply a field of identical Rally2 cars; machinery and class objectives varied.
A finishing order can tell three stories
Dogleap produced an outright rally winner, a new Forest Challenge champion and a two-wheel-drive result with its own class competitors. Mixing those three achievements into one generic victory article would bury the sporting meaning. Greer and Burns deserve an account of how the stages unfolded; Condell and Coady deserve an account of the title mathematics; and class champions deserve reporting against the competition they actually won. Those differences are why PureCar has kept separate articles, despite the events ending on the same gravel stages.
Sources and reporting notes
PureCar independently rewrote this report using the published sources below. Race results and championship standings are distinguished from commentary. Where full points tables, official timing sheets or post-event updates were unavailable, no figures have been inferred.
