Conor Mohan and Eamonn Kelly competed on the HYAcenter Ralli in Finland last weekend.
The pair were using this event in preparation for the next round of the Junior World Rally Championship, Secto Rally Finland, which takes place this weekend.
The event was exactly like the World round, as it was set on similar extremely fast gravel roads with huge crests which require big commitment and nerves of steel.
The pair used a Ford Fiesta Rally3 car, identical to the car they will be using this week for the World round, as its crucial to get the geometry settings correct so the car is set up correctly for when they start the rally Thursday night.
The rally began with a 22.9km special stage (Kehro 1) where the pair finished in 12 th overall and 4 th in their class. On SS2 (Kivijärvi 1) they moved up to 10 th OA and with a fastest time in their class they moved up to 2 nd in class.
On SS3(Latomaa 1) they could only manage a 4 th in class fastest time, which dropped them to 11 th OA and 3 rd in their class. After a service stop and a check over on their car, it was the same three stages repeated plus an extra 8.9km of a new final stage, SS7 (Savo).
On SS4 the repeat pass of SS1 they completed the stage 20s faster than they did on the first pass. On SS5 they went 9s quicker than the previous pass and climbed from 11 th OA to 9 th OA, and from 3 rd in class to 1 st .
On SS6 they went 7s faster than their previous pass, but still fell back to 10 th OA and 2 nd in their class
by just 0.6s. On the final stage which was only 8.9km, they jumped three places to 7 th OA and 1 st in their class by 5.8s to round off a brilliant event and a great warm up for the World event this weekend. The 306km of gravel stages on Secto Rally Finland begin this Thursday night and continues until midday
Sunday, incorporating twenty special stages.
County Monaghan Motor Club 