Car issues blights Eamonn Kelly’s Rally Italia Sardegna run 

Eamonn Kelly had to retire early at Rally Italia Sardegna on Saturday as his FIA Junior WRC bad luck continued. 

The Frosses man found himself back in ninth place after stage one with engine temperature as well as a puncture hampering his opening efforts. 

However, by the end of stage three he’d moved up to fourth place and was optimistic ahead of Saturday’s run. But his Fiesta suffered another puncture on stage 6 and valuable time was again lost. 

And on stage eight, a broken steering rod and and damaged suspension left the Donegal man with no option but to retire the car from action. 

He does however, intend to go once again today, Sunday. 

Taking to his social media, he posted: “It’s absolutely gutting to retire after stage eight after something in our steering broke, which put the car off the road, damaging the suspension. 

“It’s even more frustrating as we were only nursing the car through due to having no spare wheels left as we already had two punctures. It’s just to show how rough and challenging this event is. 

“We will restart tomorrow and try to finish on a positive note”.