Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan secured their third Irish Tarmac Rally win on the trot, clinching a maiden Donegal International Rally victory. The Derry driver finished the 20-stage event 55.5 seconds ahead of Matt Edwards and David Moynihan who fought back from tenth after differential trouble on stage one, with Sam Moffett and Keith Moriarty third.
It was Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes who started the Donegal International Rally strongest, though. The defending winners completed Friday’s extremely bumpy stages around Donegal Town with a 4.9-second lead over Devine’s Volkswagen Polo R5.
Moffett was on fire in the June heat aboard his Hyundai i20 R5 – winning four of the six stages on Donegal’s opening day.
Garry Jennings and Sam Moffett fought for third on Friday with the latter moving ahead of his fellow Donegal Rally winner on stage four.
The heavens opened on Saturday morning to give Donegal’s 100+ crews a tyre choice headache as they left Letterkenny’s service area.
Devine was fastest on a wet Carnhill stage, beating Josh Moffett by 5.3 seconds and moving into a 0.4-second lead.
Moffett responded straight away on Saturday’s second test, a greasy Garrygort. His Hyundai i20 R5 was fastest through stage eight by 1.1 seconds, retaking the lead from Devine.
The Donegal Rally duel continued as the cars approached the famous Knockalla hairpins. Devine attacked from the Portsalon startline, putting thoughts of cold tyres, cold brakes, and wet roads to the back of his mind. His Volkswagen Polo R5 coped with the last-minute braking and rewarded Devine’s efforts with a time 7.2 seconds faster than Josh Moffett.
Devine further extended his lead over Moffett to 15 seconds over stages 10, 11, and 12. But just when it looked like he had found an ominously smooth groove, the rally was to turn back towards Moffett’s favour.
A set-up change in service left Josh Moffett feeling much happier aboard his Hyundai, especially on the drier sections. The technical tweaks did the trick as he finally broke Devine’s grip on Carnhill with Moffett finishing closest to Edwards’ breathtaking benchmark.
As Moffett found his mojo, Devine had made a mistake. An overshoot on one of Carnhill’s greasy junctions cost the rally leader several seconds and halved his advantage over Moffett.
Edwards made it a hat-trick of stage wins on Saturday’s Garrygort finale. His turn of speed through Saturday moved him from seventh to fourth, ending the day 5.1 seconds behind third-placed Sam Moffett.
Josh Moffett managed to sneak a further 2.6 seconds out of Devine’s rally lead on Garrygort to finish day two 4.7 seconds behind his Irish Tarmac Rally Championship rival.
Overnight leaders, Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan started Donegal’s final day in perfect fashion. The Circuit of Ireland and Rally of the Lakes winners set the fastest times on High Glen and Atlantic Drive to build a 17.7-second lead over Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes heading into Fanad Head.
Devine’s grasp on victory faced a different threat on Fanad Head when rain rolled into the coastal test. He hoped his pre-Fanad advantage would be enough when he approached the wet sections with caution. What he didn’t know, though, was that Josh Moffett’s Donegal International Rally defence had come to blows near the end of the 17.9-kilometre test.
Searching for every second in his chase of Devine, Moffett slid wide on a medium left-hander and his Hyundai i20 R5 clattered into a bank. The impact broke the Hyundai’s rear right wheel, putting Moffett out of the rally with three stages remaining.
Devine now held a 53.1-second lead over Sam Moffett with a single pass of High Glen, Atlantic Drive, and Fanad Head left to go.
Devine and O’Sullivan kept their composure, and maintained a high pace of driving, to win Donegal’s final stage – an impressive way to secure their first-ever Donegal International Rally win. Matt Edwards usurped Sam Moffett in High Glen’s wet conditions, secured a runner-up finish in his Polo R5.
Ryan Caldwell may have admitted to being inexperienced taking his Skoda Fabia R5 around some of the country’s most famous stages, but the wise Arthur Kierans was alongside him to pass on some of the secrets. They had a strong run as they clocked up the miles and built confidence.
Brendan Cumiskey and Daragh Mullen brought the Fiesta Rally3 to the hills and had a fault-free event, while Paul Barrett and Kevin Reilly had to avail of Rally2 to make it to the finish in their Citroen C3, showing consistency throughout the weekend.
Dylan Eves and Ryan Farrell reigned supreme in Donegal International Rally’s Rally4 category, finishing 59.2 seconds ahead of Shane Quinn and Patrick Brides.
Rally of the Lakes winner, Ioan Lloyd set Donegal’s initial pace, winning all of Friday’s six stages. Lloyd had built a 40.9-second advantage over fellow Peugeot 208 Rally4 pilot Keelan Grogan and was an incredible 28th overall over stage six.
Both Lloyd and Grogan failed to make it through Saturday’s very first stage meaning that out of nowhere, Eves and Quinn were now locked in a battle for the category win. Quinn briefly sneaked ahead by 0.1 seconds on Saturday’s penultimate stage before Eves pumped in a rapid time through Garrygort to lead overnight by 17.3 seconds.
A fastest time, 25.1 seconds faster than any of his Rally4 rivals, through High Glen 2 put Eves and Farrell in a dominant position with two tests remaining. He continued to extend his lead to eventually finish 59.2 seconds ahead of Quinn with Joseph Kelly completing the top three. Jason McConnon and Daniel McConnon were out in their Peugeot 208 R2 and a steady run saw them get more miles under their belt and a fifth in Class finish in RC4.
Kevin Gallagher and Ryan Moore brought their Darrian T90 safely home to a massive two-minute, 19-second modified victory over Damien Tourish and Domhnall McAlaney.
Gallagher was down in fifth position after Donegal’s opening Donegal Bay test. Instead, it was Kevin Eves who was setting searing pace in his Toyota Corolla. He led Richard Moffett’s Toyota Starlet by four seconds after stage two.
Modified’s top two encountered trouble as early as stage three, though. Eves lost 28.1 seconds when a mistake punctured and bent a cross member in his rear-wheel-drive Corolla. Moffett was forced to retire on the same stage with mechanical issues.
It propelled Gallagher into a lead he wouldn’t let go of for the rest of the rally. Daniel McKenna briefly held second in modifieds on Friday before he was forced to stop on day one’s final test with technical trouble.
Stage wins on all eight tests through Saturday increased Gallagher’s lead to nearly one and a half minutes over Eves who was now focusing on keeping Tourish behind.
Tourish, who hasn’t competed on a closed-road rally since last year’s edition, was pressuring Eves’ runner-up spot before Eves’ Toyota Corolla gave up the ghost with two stages to go.
David Moffett and Martin Connolly completed the modified podium after fighting back from a one-minute time-sucking spin on the rally’s second stage. Following on from their victory in Laois recently, Eddie Doherty and Killian McArdle were fourth Modified in a stacked field.
Anthony Hand and Peter Deery had held second in Class 11R for most of the event, but inherited the lead with just the final few stages left to take a well deserved win.
Bernard McGinley and Shane Farrell had been working their way up the timesheets in the same class and moved up to third with just one stage remaining, but a storming performance on the last stage of the rally promoted them a step higher on the podium to take second by just a second.
Mickey Conlon and Donal Lennon took second in Class 12, but most importantly collected a haul of championship points.
Piaras O Ceallachain guided Brian Lavelle to second in Class 13.
James McCarville was back in action in his Class 13 Escort and had been running well before needing Rally2 to get him back out on the stages, and John McQuaid and Thomas Treanor failed to make it to the end in their Class 14 Escort.
In the Junior category over Sunday’s stages, Gary Cassidy/Gary McCrudden and Ben McIntyre/Andrew Wedlock were tied for first after High Glen’s opener, 3.5 seconds ahead of Jack McKenna/Damian Doherty.
Cassidy moved ahead on Atlantic Drive, going 3.7 seconds faster than McIntyre who was now just 0.2 seconds ahead of McKenna.
A series of stage cancellations left Donegal’s final Fanad Head test as the Junior’s shoot-out for victory.
McKenna set the timesheets alight with his effort, 4.9 seconds quicker than anyone else to clinch the Junior Donegal Rally victory by one second over Cassidy.
Mohan and Mac in action in Latvia
FIA Junior World Rally Championship frontrunners Eamonn Kelly and Conor Mohan contested the Latvian round of the ERC. They had two very different but equally important reasons for entering the event in a locally sourced Ford Fiesta Rally3. They wanted to get some experience of high-speed gravel roads ahead of the Junior WRC counting Rally Estonia next month. Rally Liepaja will be included in next year’s Junior WRC and Kelly and Mohan had always said that this year was a learning year ahead of a more serious attack in 2024. It was a case of mission accomplished, a solid 24th overall and sixth in a class that was won by Northern Ireland’s Jon Armstong.
“ERC Latvia done, good event, really fun stages, superfast, obviously we came here to learn, first time on really, really fast gravel so happy with the progress, ok the result was not great but we can build on it. We came here to gain experience, we got it, so let’s see if we can take it to Estonia,” said the Donegal driver.
Australia-based Aghabog man Mac Kierans was on pacenote duty for Max McRae in an Opel Corsa Rally 4. They finished sixth in the Junior category. They led the category- by 0.1 of a second – after Saturday’s opening leg but a one-minute time penalty after an early check-in for a technical zone shoved them down the order. They were unable to recover the lost time and eventually finished fifth.
“It started off very well, we were straight on the pace of the junior competitors, then the final super special stage of sat evening we took the overnight lead. It was very short as I clocked in a minute early into a technical zone on Saturday evening, this gave us a one-minute penalty dropping us from first to seventh overnight,” said the Monaghan man.
“Sunday, we went on a charge to try and make back some time but unfortunately with a number of quick stage times we could only climb back up to fifth overall in the Junior ERC.” “It was good to get to the end, stages are unbelievable, cut up on second pass on Sunday but very good, good event for us overall.”
County Monaghan Motor Club 