Author: monaghanmotorclub

The Irish Tarmac Rally Championship is perfectly poised heading to its biggest event of the year, round five, the Donegal International Rally.

Several crews have staked a strong claim on the coveted Irish Tarmac title but last year’s champions, Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes, have consistently recorded podium finishes to once again lead the championship heading to Donegal.

Driving the same Hyundai i20 R5 that brought them success on the Donegal International Rally 12 months ago, Moffett and Hayes have only managed one victory from the ITRC’s first four rounds.

A repeat of Moffett’s dramatic Donegal win this time around would make him a strong favourite for his third Irish Tarmac title.

Managing to do the Donegal double is not going to be simple, however. Especially with 2022’s long-term rally leader, Callum Devine, coming into form at a dangerous time in the season.

Robert Barrable is a dark horse who could well spring a surprise this weekend. The Dubliner has adjusted well to his Citroen C3 Rally2 – narrowly missing out on victories in West Cork and Killarney.

Previous Donegal Rally winners, Sam Moffett, Garry Jennings, and Declan Boyle, have shown glimpses of their spine-tingling speed this year and join a host of top names capable of winning Ireland’s only three-day rally.

As always, there is a strong Monaghan contingent making the trip to the hills for the monument of Irish motorsport.

Brendan Cumiskey is entered in his Polo R5, with Paul Barrett contesting in Citroen C3 Rally2. Arthur Kierans is back alongside Ryan Caldwell in their Skoda Fabia R5.

If there is ever a rally where modifieds come to the fore, it has to be Donegal. The two-wheel-drive competition always goes up a level at the Donegal International Rally.

Fresh from victory at the Laois Heartlands Rally, Eddie Doherty and Killian McArdle have performed incredibly well in his Ford Escort MKII. Their string of top finishes puts them in a threatening position to clinch this year’s modified title. They are seeded just behind Daniel McKenna and Andrew Grennan.

Moffett brothers Richard and David are rarely far from the pace and will also be contesting for victory in their Toyota Starlets. Darragh Kelly and Martin Connolly are the respective co-drivers. John McQuaid and Thomas Treanor will be another local crew fighting it out in Class 14. Kiane Treanor and Piaras O’Ceallachain will also be on the notes in the fastest modified section.

James McCarville is entered in a Class 13 Escort, Micky Conlon and Domhnall Lennon are in Class 12 and Anthony Hand and Peter Deery will be fighting in Class 11F.

The Rally4 category has been one of the best classes in the 2023 Irish Tarmac Rally Championship. With seven or eight potential winners on each Irish Tarmac event, it is no wonder that there have been four different victors so far this year. It will be the home event for Dylan Eves, who has Ryan Farrell on the notes once again. The crew will be hoping to build on their consistent run of form so far this year.

Jason and Daniel McConnon will go to Donegal in their Peugeot 208 R2.

18 Junior crews are set to take on the Donegal International Rally this year. Junior BRC frontrunner Kyle McBride is seeded at the front ahead of Gary Cassidy and Gary McCrudden.

Jack McKenna has been the man to beat in Class 16 at a number of rallies this year and he is seeded number four.

With a number of drivers all in the junior championship mix and ready for a Donegal challenge – it should be an interesting battle over Sunday’s famous stages.

Killian McArdle stood on the top step of the podium in Laois, as he and driver Eddie Doherty took the win at the Laois Heartlands mini-stages. The pair left the event’s Portlaoise HQ seeded second on the road and opened the day with a third fastest time behind Chris O’Callaghan and Barry Meade’s similar MKII Escorts. A fastest time on the second stage and a retirement for O’Callaghan put them within two seconds of the lead. Barry Meade would retire from the lead after an awkward one-wheel landing over a big jump, and Doherty/McArdle capitalised with another fastest time to inherit a 4.3 second lead over Declan Gallagher’s Starlet.

Two more fastest times on stages four and five had the crew entering the final stage with a seven second buffer to Gallagher. The Milkman responded with a last-stage effort but it wasn’t enough as he’d finish 3.3 seconds behind.

The two crews were in a league of their own, with Frank Kelly finishing third overall, over 48 seconds further back. Alan Smyth had Monaghan’s Gary McCrudden on their notes in his Class 14 Escort. They finished fourth overall on what was a very hot day of rallying. Michael Carbin and Dean O’Sullivan were one place further back and first Class 20 in their Mitsubishi Evo.

Ashling McArdle guided Des Lyons to second in Class 11F and 25th OA. Thomas Treanor was on the notes for Graham Kelly and the Escort G4 crew finished just ahead of James McCarville and Conal McNulty.

Mohan maintains JWRC momentum in Italy

Conor Mohan and Billy Coleman Award winner Eamonn Kelly contested the Junior element of Rally Italia Sardegna. They endured a tough and demanding rally on their way to sixth in the category. The Sardinia-based rally was one of the most difficult of the season so far, changeable weather conditions and extremely rough roads made it one of the most demanding rallies of the season so far. The Donegal driver, the class winner in Croatia in May, was almost lost for words after he was asked to describe the conditions he faced during the rally.

“Glad to get to the end, it’s been a tough event, it is very hard to describe how crazy it is, but I enjoyed every bit of it,” he said. “It’s crazy, it was a savage challenge and I never done anything like that before.”

Kelly is sixth in the championship standings after Italy, the third of five rounds. Mohan is fifth in the co-driver classification. Next up is Estonia in July but with double points on offer in the final round in Greece, the series remains wide open.

William Creighton and Liam Regan took the win in the category to extend their championship lead, with the result meaning that a Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy driver has won every Junior round so far this year.

There was a grandstand finish to the Hotel Kilmore Cavan Stages Rally – a counting round of the Motorsport Ireland Triton Showers National Rally Championship and the Sligo Pallets Border Rally Championship.

Eventual winners Josh Moffett and Keith Moriarty entered the final stage near Drung 0.3 of a second in arrears to Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan.

The Hyundai i20 crew dug deep over the challenging test, their task not helped by the melting tar caused by the day’s high temperatures, to turn the deficit into a 1.8-second victory.

“It was all or nothing, we took a lot of chances out there this evening,” saidMoffett at the finish ramp at the Hotel Kilmore.

“It was a bit dusty out there this morning and in the end, the tar was slightly melting which made for a challenging day, but we are delighted. There is still a lot to play for in the championship, we needed a victory, it was important.”

It was their second win of the 2023 Triton campaign after coming out on top on the Circuit of Kerry in April too.

Earlier in the day Moffett survived a hair-raising spin on stage five and overcame a mysterious engine management fault that resulted in the car’s engine cutting out.

Round one winners Devine and O’Sullivan were credited with a poor time on stage one, attributed to a malfunction within the event’s timing system and this threw their concentration in the early part of the rally.

When the time was eventually corrected, just ahead of stage seven the Volkswagen Polo crew found themselves in the rally lead in the thick of a battle for overall honours.

Third seeds Desi Henry and Paddy Robinson made their maiden championship appearance of the year and finished where they started in third.

“We had a few altercations with Cavan ditches, they jumped out in front of us,” said Henry.

His Citroen C3 Rally2 also developed an engine management system similar to the one Moffett experienced.

“We overshot a junction, stalled and then the engine management system went into reboot mode for some reason,” he added.

Cathan McCourt and Barry McNulty were fourth in their first outing in a new Ford Fiesta. He admitted that he took the early part of the rally to get acquainted with his new mount.

Stephen Wright and Ger Conway were fifth in Class in their Fiesta R5

Just like the main rally, the modified category was decided on the last stage. Kevin Eves and Chris Melly entered the final stage some five seconds behind long-time rally leaders Daniel McKenna and Andrew Greenan.

The Toyota Corolla driver threw caution to the wind to take the category victory by just 0.1 of a second over his Ford Escort rival. Dessie Keenan and Jason McKenna rounded out the top ten in their Ford Escort. The Monaghan crew have not rallied since the Midland Moto Stages Rally in March and admitted it took until the latter part of the rally to get up to the same speed as their busier rivals.

The event was, as always, well supported by Monaghan crews who took to the roads just a short hop across the country boundary.

Niall Maguire and Conor Foley took the Subaru Impreza S12 to 13th overall, while Michael Carbin and Dean O’Sullivan were 20th O/A and 1st in Class in their Mitsubishi. Just behind Carbin was Brendan Cumiskey and Martin Connolly, who were first in Class 4 in the Ford Fiesta Rally3.

Dylan Eves and Ryan Farrell were the Drive of the Day winners in their Ford Fiesta, and took 3rd in the very competitive RC4 class. Like many other battles during the day, there was nothing in it by the end and they were just three seconds off the top spot.

In Class 3, Jason and Daniel McConnon were on for a strong result until steering issues on the final loop demoted them to 4th in Class.

Paul Barrett/Kevin Reilly (Citroen C3 Rally2) and Shane Maguire/Paul Maguire (Ford Fiesta R5) were trading times in Class 5 throughout the rally and getting quicker all afternoon, until issues on the last stage dropped Maguire back down the field.

In Class 9, Patrick Fitzpatrick and James McEneaney had a strong event to take a convincing class win.

Cathal Sheridan and Peter Deery had been leaded Class 10 in the red Nova before retirement.

Gary Cassidy and Killian McArdle had to settle for second in Class 11F in their Honda Civic. Ashling McArdle was calling notes for Des Lyons and took fourth. Jack Maguire/Keith McConnon would finish sixth in the same class.

In Class 11R, Martin McPhillips and Peter Farrell were 3rd in their Corolla Twin Cam, while Martin McPhillips (Newbliss) guided Barney Greenan to 5th in class. It was a story of what could have been for Anthony Hand and David McCrudden who were second in class after the opening stage but forced to re-enter under Rally2 and bounced back with quick times.

Justin Smyth and Gregory McQuillan took Class 12 ahead of James Cassidy and Domhnall Lennon.

In Class 13, Raymond Conlon and Gavin Doherty were 3rd, Trevor Burke was on the notes for Mervyn Deane and finished 5th and Declan Tynan was alongside Gene McDonald to finish 9th in class. Monaghan co-drivers Piaras O’Ceallachain and Paul McPhillips were early contenders in the class, but both respective crews retired before the end of the day. James McCarville’s rally only lasted the length of the first stage. Gerard McGivney and Donal Crossan were also early retirees from the event.

McKenna and Keenan made sure the county was represented on the Class 14 podium, and David Moffett and Eric Calnan were just behind the leading bunch before the Starlet jammed into 1st gear on the last stage and they were forced to drive through at a more relaxed pace. Johno Doogan and Paul Lennon recovered from early troubles to prove their speed on the stage times. Richard Moffett and Darragh Kelly rolled out of the modified lead near the end of Stage 3. Gary McPhillips and Paul Sheridan were another local crew to show early speed, but failed to make the finish.

Monaghan’s Jack McKenna and Damien Doherty won the Junior Rally in a dominant fashion, this was the Honda Civic crew’s third maximum score from as many starts this season.

In Class 15, Brian Comiskey and Declan Campbell led the way ahead of Patrick Connolly and John McCarville.

Round 4 of the Triton Showers National Rally Championship will take place in Waterford on the 2nd of July for the Ravens Rock Stages Rally.

Kierans crews in the UK

Max McRae and Mac Kierans had a short lived Jim Clark Rally when the driveshaft in their Opel Corsa Rally4 gave in on the first stage and caused damage that put them out for the weekend. Mac’s father Arthur had some better luck, making it the full distance of the rally alongside Alan Carmichael to take sixth in the BRC1 class.

On a day that seemed to bring with it every sort of condition, from morning rain to afternoon sunshine that made every one of the six stages a challenge, the Junior 1000 series once more delivered a roller-coaster day on the Sean Conlon Tipperary Forest Rally with Tommy Moffett taking his first victory in the series.

The time sheets from Stage 1 definitely required a second look when Jack Kennedy & Colin O’Toole went 9.3 seconds quicker than anyone on the opening 10.1km Goatenbridge test. Another fastest time on Stage 2 had many thinking we were going to see a similar outcome to the championship opener in Killarney, but Kennedy’s event ended abruptly on Stage 3 when he left the road.

A number of other contenders would hit trouble early on but as all around them faltered, Tommy Moffett and Domhnall Lennon seized their opportunity in their Toyota Aygo.

The brother of previous forestry rally championship overall winners Sam and Josh, Tommy was 13 seconds down after the first two tests, but never looked back as he won each of the remaining four stages and romped home to a substantial 54 second victory in the hotly contested class and with it a huge championship point haul, and adding to his second placed finish on the opening round in Kerry.

Sharing the podium with Moffett were Ross Ryan and Peter Keohane in second and Tommy Cronin and Karl Egan third.

In the main field would be Mark Donnelly and Sean Ferris who would return to Cahir as victors and claim a back-to-back winning start to the 2023 Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship. Although he would finish the day atop the podium with 19.8 seconds to spare, it was not Donnelly who would lead at the end of the opening test, but instead a similar Ford Fiesta R5 of Pat O’Connell and Mark Wylie led the way by seven tenths of a second, and the pair would set identical times on the 2nd stage. When O’Connell’s challenge ended due to a mechanical issue on the very slippy Ballydrehid test, Donnelly would return to service with a 15.8 second lead.

Hot on the in-form Donnelly’s tail, today being his third victory in 2023 after the Championship opener in Killarney and the non-championship Fivemiletown rallies, would be 2022 Forest Championship runners-up Jordan Hone & Paul Hone in the sister AP-Art run Ford Fiesta. Jordan used all his experience to bring the car home in second place come the end of the day.

It would be Vivian Hamill & Andrew Grennan who would bring their VW Polo GTi R5 home in third place. The experienced pair had a real battle on their hands to hold of young-gun Ryan Caldwell who would finish fourth alongside Arthur Kierans in a Skoda Fabia R5.

Derek Mackarel and Eamonn Creedon had a start to finish victory in their Class 20 Mitsubishi Evo. They mixed it with the R5 machines to take 9th Overall.

The 2WD battle was a real ding-dong affair as the times swung in all manner of directions as reports of incidents filtered back from the stages. In the end, as the champagned sprayed and the trophies were handed out, it was the incredibly unique Lada VFTS of Shane McGirr & Liam McIntyre who would claim the victory.

Hugh McQuaid & Declan Casey were within a whisker of the lead cars times as the results rolled in. In the end 10.9 seconds would separate the pair.

Sharing the Podium with the Lada and McQuaid’s Ford MK2 Escort was the Ford Fiesta Rally4 of Dylan Eves amd  Ryan Farrell who were setting blistering pace in the FWD car. The result also sees Dylan claim a strong haul of points in the dual-surface Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally Series, an MI Academy backed series developing future rally talent.

All eyes are now set on Ballyvourney and the re-scheduled Moonraker Forest Rally which is now scheduled for June 25th.

Mohan gains more global experience

There was Irish representation at the WRC Rally Portugal. Josh McErlean and co-driver John Rowan finished second in the WRC2 challenger category, seventh in the WRC2 overall class and 12th overall, equalling his career-best from Belgium in 2021. They were driving a Hyundai i20 N Rally2, prepared by Irish team PCRS Rallysport in what was a long and difficult event.

The second Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy car was driven by Billy Coleman Award winner, and JWRC Croatia winners Eamonn Kelly and Conor Mohan. The crew were given the chance to drive the car – only their third gravel event in Rally2 car – as part of the academy’s plan to share its use with several drivers over the season. The Donegal/Monaghan pairing faced a steep learning curve during this rally event, losing a load of time on the opening stage when a routine puncture change went wrong. Later in the day, they were late for the final stage following exhaust failure on a road section. 

They had to rely on SuperRally rules to get themselves to the finish after retiring Saturday with mechanical problems. Nevertheless, Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy Co-ordinator Sean McHugh said they were happy with their performance and pace over the weekend.

“We had a weekend of ups and downs,” said Kelly. “But we were here to learn and we learned a hell of a lot. It was an experience never to be forgotten.”

Kelly and Mohan’s next event is the Junior WRC counting Rally Sardegna in a few weeks’ time. After three days of gravel rallying in Portugal, Kelly said he is more than ready for whatever the Italian roads will throw at them.