A strong drive in tricky conditions gave Cathan McCourt and Brian Hoy victory on the Down Rally, with over 46 seconds in hand ahead of the Citroen C3 Rally2 of Desi Henry and Paddy Robinson. Fastest times on six stages, and second fastest on the remaining two were the result of a commanding drive for the Ford Fiesta Rally2 crew. Jason Mitchell/Paddy McCrudden took third ahead of Jonny Greer and Niall Burns. Greer had done enough in fourth to secure the Northern Ireland championship title.
Top 2WD and 13th Overall went to Richard Moffett and Martin Connolly in the Toyota Starlet. The pair took the lead on the opening stage and held that position until the end of the event.
Emyvale’s Shane Gilhooly sat alongside Colin O’Rourke in a Skoda Fabia R5 and the pair gained speed throughout the day and the challenging weather to finish inside the top 30.
Joseph Kelly and Ronan Comerford were 3rd in the Rally4 category. Letisha and Stephen Conn progressed through the class over the course of the rally to take 8th.
Shane Farrell was on the notes for Shane Lavery in an Escort MKII, but their rally ended shortly after a rapid time on stage one.
Imokilly stages
On the Imokilly mini stages, Rob Duggan and Mikie Galvin took a start to finish victory in their Ford Escort. They finished 17 seconds ahead of Eddie Doherty and Tom Murphy, with Conor Murphy and Sean Collins third.
Killian McArdle made the trip south to Midleton for the event and was alongside Mikey Ryan in a Class 16 Honda Civic. The pair opened the day with a second fastest class time but unfortunately their rally was to end not long after that.
WRC Rally Estonia
Rally Estonia featured 21 stages totalling a competitive distance of 300km.
Friday was the longest day of the event with a total distance of 133.38km from the day’s seven stages
Saturday’s itinerary totalled 102.61km and presented nine more stages for the crews to tackle
Sunday marked the shortest day of the event, with just 61.08km of stage to round off the rally.
There was heartbreak for Eamonn Kelly and Conor Mohan who were forced to retire their Ford Fiesta Rally3 on the rally’s final stage.
The Donegal/Monaghan crew were on the back foot since the event’s second stage. An off-road excursion cost over 30 minutes but they persevered and were running in seventh place in the Junior WRC category when they were forced out of the rally within sight of the finish line.
The fight for the Junior World Rally Championship is set to go right to the wire and Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy William Creighton remains in the thick of the battle.
The series will be decided at September’s EKO Acropolis Rally Greece where double points are on offer.
Brendan Cumiskey got to the end of his maiden World Rally Championship driving a similar Fiesta Rally 3 car to the junior category contenders.
It was the third International rally in as many weeks and in three different countries for co-driver Arthur Kierans. He arrived in Estonia direct from the United States of America where he contested the North East Forest Rally in Maine. A week prior he was alongside Rally Academy member Aoife Raftery in the Royal Rally of Scandinavia.
County Monaghan Motor Club 