Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan’s start-to-finish victory on Sunday’s ALMC Rally means that both the main Triton Showers Motorsport Ireland National Rally Championship title protagonists now have three wins a piece.
The sixth round of the Triton Showers-backed Motorsport Ireland National Rally Championship took place near the town of Oldcastle, County Meath.
Devine and O’Sullivan added another success to their Midland Moto Rally and Sligo Stages victories earlier in the season.
Sunday’s rally was run in mixed conditions and tyre choice was almost impossible on each loop – what worked on one stage most certainly did not work on another.
Desi Henry and co-driver Shane Byrne were second for the entire rally. The Citroen C3 Rally 3 crew were a late entry for this event as they wanted mileage ahead of next weekend’s Ulster Rally.
However, they lost time on stage six, and an off-road excursion led to a damaged radiator. Their mechanics repaired the car, and they did put Devine and O’Sullivan under a lot of pressure in the latter half of the rally.
Just 2.6 second separated the two crews ahead of the final stage showdown but Devine held his nerve to take his third National win of the season.
The final margin was just two seconds after nine classic former Castle Hellfire Rally stages.
Josh Moffett, now equipped with the newer version of the Hyundai i20 Rally 2 car that his brother Sam used earlier in the year, admitted he is having trouble adjusting to his new mount – particularly on wet roads. However he was still only five seconds off the win.
“I was bad too in the wet half of the Cork ‘20’ too,” said the Monaghan driver – crucially he will take second place points as Henry was not registered. He also netted bonus points for winning the Powerstage.
“Those Powerstage points could be very crucial come the end of the season,” he said.
Kevin Gallagher and Ryan Moore won the Modified category in their Darrian T90 GTR to strengthen their hold on that category within the championship.
They enjoyed a rally-long battle with runners-up Gary Kiernan and John McCabe in their Ford Escort to finish fifth.
Richard Moffett and Ger Conway rounded out the top ten and took 3rd Modified in their Toyota Starlet. They felt that the car was too soft earlier in the day and stiffened up the suspension at the first service halt.
Moffett had just one second to spare ahead of fellow Class 14 competitors Jonathan Pringle and Pearse O’Callaghan. Johno Doogan and Paul Lennon were fifth in the class.
Gary McPhillips and Paul Sheridan had been running as high as 9th OA and 3rd in Class 14, but their run ended after Stage 8.
Paul McPhillips guided Aaron McIntyre to second in Class 13 and 16th OA.
Michael Carbin and Dean O’Sullivan took another Class 20 victory in the Mitsubishi Evo.
Justin Smyth and Gregory McQuillan were Class 12 winners while Gary Cassidy and Killian McArdle were top in 11F. Jack Maguire and Keith McConnon were fifth in 11F.
Cathal Sheridan and Peter Deery took the honours in Class 10 in their Nova.
Brian Cumiskey and Declan Campbell won Class 15 ahead of Patrick Connolly and Paul Maguire.
Martin McPhillips and Peter Farrell were just 3 seconds off 3rd in 11R.
Barry McKenna/Gary McCrudden and Gerry McGivney/Donal Crossan were in action in Class 13, as was Barry McArdle on the notes for Paul Monahan.
Jason and Daniel McConnon made the trip to Meath in their Class 2 Peugeot and Martin McPhillips was in the hotseat in Barney Greenan’s 11R Escort.
Triton Showers Motorsport Ireland National Championship officials extended a vote of sympathy to championship official Declan Tumulty whose wife Lisa passed away on the eve of the event after a long illness.
County Monaghan Motor Club 