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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.

Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan successfully defended their Killarney Rally of the Lakes crown to take their second Irish Tarmac win of the year by a well-managed 25.1 seconds.

The Volkswagen Polo R5 crew fought back from a puncture on the Moll’s Gap opener to grab the rally lead on stage four.

Hometown hero Rob Duggan set a blistering time through stage one to grab an early 9.8-second lead on his first R5 outing since 2018. Robert Barrable was the best of the rest in second while Meirion Evans completed the top three. Duggan extended his advantage on Healy Pass but his sensational start was to endure its first setback on the next test.

Galway International Rally winners, Meirion Evans and Jonathan Jackson, set the second-fastest time through Healy Pass but a roll on Cod’s Head put their Polo R5 out of the running. Devine and Josh Moffett were the only drivers to complete the stage before Evans’ off temporarily stopped the stage. The Derry driver flew through the bumps, jumps, twists, and turns of the epic Cod’s Head test, going 14.5 seconds faster than Moffett.

The crews who completed stage three at road speed were given Moffett’s time, putting Devine right back in the mix after his stage one puncture. Devine and Barrable battled for the remainder of the day, trading stage wins with Devine finishing day one’s eight stages with a 7.5-second overnight lead.

Devine was the fastest out of the blocks on Sunday morning’s Moll’s Gap opener. Fourth-placed Josh Moffett showed a glimpse of his usual pace on Ballaghbeama, setting the third-fastest time. The reigning Tarmac champion had extended his advantage over his brother Sam to 9.7 seconds after stage ten.

Sam Moffett’s intentions to bounce back on the succeeding Moll’s Gap test didn’t come to fruition. Instead, his rally-long brotherly battle ended when his Hyundai i20 Rally2 slid into a chicane backwards.

Devine kept his cool through two passes of Gortnagane and Knockrower East to seal another crucial victory in his Irish Tarmac title hunt. Duggan slid into a bank on Killarney’s penultimate test, solidifying Barrable’s second runner-up finish of the year.

Championship leader, Josh Moffett, cruised home in third to secure more important points.

Gary Kiernan had been battling for third in modifieds when late retirements for Kevin Eves, Jason Black and Chris Armstrong handed the Cavan driver maximum points with a 37 second gap to Eddie Doherty.

John McCarthy made it a Ford Escort Mk2 lockout on the modified podium and in turn secured Class 13’s top spot.

Johno Doogan with Paul Lennon alongside finished 3rd in Class 14 and 11th OA, while Piaras O’Ceallachain guided Brian Lavelle to 2nd in Class 13 and 13th OA. Co-driving for Eugene Meegan in the BMW 1M, Paul McPhillips came home 6th in Class 14 and Ryan Farrell guided Dylan Eves to 3rd in the very competitive RC4 category. Calum Maguire navigated Jordan Jervis to 6th in the Junior event.

Brendan Cumiskey and Martin Connolly’s weekend ended after Stage 4. Martin McPhillips and Peter Farrell were sitting 5th in Class 11R before retirement after Stage 14. Raymond Conlon, James McCarville and Shane Farrell were all competing in Class 13 but failed to finish. Arthur Kierans was in the Historic category, navigating for Trevor Wilson in a Porsche 911. However the crew failed to reach the end after a competitive start.

May Day Stages

Stephen Wright had number one on the Jennings Fuels and Lubricants May Day Stages Rally, but it was Aaron McLoughlin and Darren Curran who took the win at St Angelo.

Wright did lead after two stages but dropped well down the order on Stage 3. He did bounce back with three top five stage times to prove his ability and speed.

Martin McPhillips had a start to finish Class 2 victory, co-driving Martin Collins in a Honda Civic.

Sean Craig was co-driver for Derek Robinson in a Talbot Sunbeam and finished 65th OA.

Ryan Farrell was in action again, sitting in with Damien McGauran, however they failed to finish.

Monaghan co-driver Conor Mohan guided Donegal’s Eamonn Kelly to victory in the second round of the FIA Junior WRC, Rally Croatia.

It was an emotional event for the competing crews, as they took to the stages in memory of Craig Breen, who died during a pre-event test for the rally. Breen’s Hyundai team donned a special tricolour livery for the event, with other cars having their own tributes to the Waterford driver.

Sweden winner William Creighton was the early pace-setter in the JWRC, and finished the opening day with a slim nine second advantage. Kelly/Mohan were fifth in the ever-competitive one-make series. A string of second and third fastest stage times, as well as retirements for Creighton and other competitors meant that Kelly/Mohan climbed to third in the category after Saturday’s run of stages. They were only 30 seconds from the second step on the podium and had a comfortable buffer to the cars behind.

There were just four stages to contest on Sunday, and the drama unfolded from the beginning, long-term leader Laurent Pellier developed engine trouble in his Ford Fiesta Rally3, which saw his advantage fall rapidly before he was forced to retire on the penultimate stage. This would have promoted Belgium’s Tom Rensonnet to the lead if he hadn’t developed issues of his own and dropped a minute on the second to last stage. This left Kelly/Mohan in the lead with just one stage remaining, and a 31 second lead over Rensonnet. As they had done for the entire weekend up to that point, the pair kept their nose clean on the final stage to take a historic victory on the world stage.

Speaking at the stage end, Kelly said it was a special result after a difficult period for the Irish rallying community.

“It’s been a mad week and weekend and I just can’t believe it. It is the stuff that dreams are made of. You grow up watching all that’s going on and never thought I’d be part of something like this,” he said.

“It’s been an emotional week for everyone Irish as well so there’s no question about who you could dedicate this win to. There was a man up there in the sky shining down on us and this win is for him.”

In the JWRC points are awarded for fastest stage times, and this allowed William Creighton to extend his championship lead despite reentering the rally after his Saturday morning roll. Kelly and Mohan’s win places them sixth in the championship, just four points off second place.

The next round of the JWRC, Rally Italia Sardegna, takes place on 1 June.

In the main WRC field, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin took the victory, with Ott Tanak second and Esapekka Lappi third in his tricolour Hyundai. Thierry Neuville took the powerstage victory after crashing out of the lead on Saturday. Evans dedicated his victory to Breen. The Irish national anthem was played and tricolours draped over the winning car in a subdued podium.

Mackarel masters Mayo

Closer to home, Derek Mackarel took victory in the Mayo Motorclub loose surface autocross on Sunday. Each competitor was allowed three timed runs and in a competitive field, his best run in his Mitsubishi Evo was over four seconds faster than his nearest rival. On the day, Derek was also presented with the trophy for winning the 2022 championship in Mayo

Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan took victory on the 2023 Circuit of Ireland having led
from the opening stage to claim a 10.2-second win over Irish Tarmac Rally Championship
leaders, Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes.

Devine started the day on the stages in the
Cookstown area with a time 3.8 seconds faster than Moffett.

Desi Henry and Sam Moffett were third and fourth after stage one while Meirion Evans was in fifth.

Cathan McCourt was an early retirement. His Citroen C3 Rally2 broke its driveshaft on the
first junction, costing he and co-driver Caolan McKenna three minutes before getting it fixed
in the next service halt.

Josh Moffett responded to Devine’s quick start by winning stage two
and cutting Devine’s lead to 0.3 seconds heading into service.

Desi Henry held third after two stages, 1.6 seconds ahead of Evans who jumped ahead of Sam Moffett. Jonny Greer
came back from a slow start to move level with Sam Moffett in fifth after three stages.

On stage four, Devine upped the pace and went fastest by 13.3 seconds, which put Josh go
from 0.8 seconds back to 14.1 seconds by the halfway point. The West Cork Rally winner
had a big moment over a Shanmaghry crest, finishing the stage with a puncture. Defying the
odds in his typical fashion, Moffett still managed to set a second-fastest time through stage
four.

Sibling Sam also suffered some damage on Shanmaghry. He lost the power steering in
his Hyundai after an abrupt landing after yet another crest. Moffett lost three seconds to
Greer who had now moved into fourth ahead of Desi Henry.

Josh Moffett responded to the pressure by taking a hat-trick of fastest times between stage
five and seven, including beating the bogey time on stage five.

Evans was back on form at the start of Saturday afternoon’s stages, while Greer struggled on the bumps and Sam
Moffett hit more trouble, losing over 10 seconds stuck in one of stage five’s initial chicanes.
A puncture on stage six cost Desi Henry a minute and dropped him down the leaderboard to
eighth. Just ahead of him was Declan Boyle had slipped 3.4 seconds ahead of Robert
Barrable to move into the top six.

Barrable was to finish the Circuit of Ireland in sixth, however, as Boyle slid off the road on
the final stage of the day.

Sam Moffett completed his eventful day in fifth, continuing to relearn the Rally2 ropes behind the wheel of his new Hyundai. Jonny Greer was getting faster and faster to finish within three seconds of the podium positions in fourth.
Continuing his run of podiums was Meirion Evans in third.

Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan ensured they didn’t let their first international rally win of 2023 slip, going fastest
on the Circuit’s Shanmaghry finale by 0.8 seconds over runners-up Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes.

Jason Black and Karl Egan were best of the Modified in tenth overall, less than three
seconds ahead of Kevin Eves. Killian McArdle guided Eddie Doherty to 18th OA and third in
Class 7.

Johno Doogan and Ciaran Marron were two places further back in a similar Ford
Escort MKII. Michael Conlon and Domhnall Lennon took the honours in Class 5.

Declan McKenna navigated Bryan Jardine to 70th OA.

Tommy O’Connell/Emmett Sherry led the historic category after the first stage but failed to
finish the event.

Arthur Kierans, Kaine Treanor and Calum Maguire would also all fail to make the finish as co-drivers in their respective pairings.

Aaron Mc Elroy pp Oisin Sherlock.

Josh Moffett and Keith Moriarty emerged victorious on last weekends Circuit of Kerry Stages Rally, round 2 of the Motorsport Ireland National Rally Championship. The pair finished the nine stage event with just 6.5 seconds to spare over closest rival Callum Devine/Noel O’Sullivan. Despite a few overshoots/spins Kevin Gallagher/Lorcan Moore steered their class 14 Darrian T90 GTR to 3^rd overall.

On the opening stage ‘Mount Eagle 1’ Josh was fastest by 3.4s over Callum through the 12.8km test. While Josh was content with his run, Callum was very unhappy with his performance and mentioned that his VW Polo won’t stop for him quickly enough and struggles to turn in. The next two stages continued the same way, with Josh setting the fastest times, with Callum following closely behind.

In first service Callum’s team got working on the car to try make it more comfortable to drive, but on SS4, it was still Josh in control, as he scored his 4^th stage win in a row. On the road section to SS5, Callum carried out a few small changes to the car, which seemed to help as he took his first stage win on SS5, but only by the tiny margin of 0.6s. Josh once again took the stage win on SS6, but this time just by a mere 0.2s, to go into the final service with a lead of 8.8s.

More setup changes were on the cards during the final service for Callum, and he was much happier during the final loop. Despite not being able to take the lead off Josh, he did manage to win the all important power stage and receive a bonus point to go along with his 18 points for finishing 2^nd overall. That bonus point means that after the opening two rounds of the championship, Both Josh and Callum share the lead.

In the modified battle Gallagher had a huge battle all day with Mark Alcorn/Domhnall McAlaney. After 6 stages Gallagher held a 7s lead, but Alcorn reduced this to 5.5s after SS7. With just two stages to go, Gallagher had to up his game to keep the hard charging Alcorn behind. Amazingly, on SS8, both crews had two overshoots/offs each and still managed almost identical times. Alcorn scored the stage win, but had only reduced the gap by 0.4s. Alcorn was absolutely furious with himself at the stage end as he threw what may have been the class 14 lead away with just one stage and 6.04 kms to go. Alcorn put all on the line on the last stage, but it wasn’t to be as he had another moment and dropped 14.5s, but luckily for him he held onto his 2^nd in the modifieds.

Richard Moffett/Darragh Kelly finished 6^th OA and 2^nd in class 14. Paul Barrett/Kevin Reilly finished 15^th OA and 8^th class 5. Michael Carbin/Dean O’Sullivan finished 22^nd OA and 1^st class 20. David Moffett/Paul Lennon finished 26^th OA and 6^th class 14. Anthony Hand/David McCrudden finished 32^nd OA and 2^nd class 11R. Ashling McArdle guided Des Lyons to 46^th OA and 3^rd class 11F. Brian Comiskey/Declan Campbell 73^rd OA and 1^st class 15.  Jason and Daniel McConnon finished 94^th OA and 5^th class 2. Jack McKenna/Damien Doherty finished 2^nd overall in the junior rally, but more importantly, they were top registered crew in the National Championship, and walk away with full points.

Gary McPhillips/Paul Sheridan were 11^th OA and 4^th class 14, but retired on SS7 and Raymond Conlon/Gavin Doherty crashed out of the event on SS1, both crew were uninjured.

Elsewhere, Conor Mohan was navigating for Eamonn Kelly out in Croatia. With the next round of the Junior World Rally Championship taking place in Croatia in a couple of weeks time, Eamonn and Conor decided to take part in the Quattro River Rally Karlovac as a test for to get the feel of the Croatian roads and the M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally3 on tarmac. The rally began on Saturday with one Super Special Stage followed by two normal Special Stages.

With rain forecast, the boys hit the stages with full wet tyres, but unfortunately the rain did not materialise leaving the lads no choice but to complete the three stages on the wrong tyre choice. Nevertheless, the lads finished the day in 11^th OA and 3^rd in class RC3. On day two, nine stages were on the cards. The day got off to a great start on the opening two stages they climbed up to 10^th overall, before having a spin and a stall on SS6, which dropped them to 15^th. On the middle loop, they were back up to speed and climbed to 13^th overall. On the closing loop of three stages, the sky opened and left the roads treacherous as they had a hard slick tyre compound on the car. A puncture on SS10 cost them considerable time, but luckily didn’t cause any position loss and they eventually finished 13^th overall and 4^th in class.

Mac Kierans was also in action last weekend in Australia. Navigating for Richie Dalton, they unfortunately clipped a fence post near the end of SS2 which broke a steering arm spelling a rather quick end to their event. No spare steering arm meant they were unable to rejoin the event.

Squealing Pig Monaghan Border Navigation Championship Prizegiving

The Border Navigation Championship awards night took place last Friday in the Squealing Pig in Monaghan town. Michael and Ciaran Tynan scooped the overall award once again after defeating Michael’s son Martin Tynan and David McCrudden via a tiebreaker as both crews finished on 52 points. Michael and Ciaran won the tiebreaker as they had two overall wins. Pakie Duffy/Evin Hughes finished 3^rd overall.

In the classes, Shane Dalton and Oisín Sherlock were 1st Expert, with Darragh Kelly and Ryan Treanor finishing 2nd. 3rd in the class went to Michael Carbin and Conor Mohan.

In the Semi-Expert class, Darragh Kelly and Patrick Corcoran were victorious, with Aidan Keenan and Eamonn Doherty finishing 2nd. 3rd in the class went to Matt Hume and Sean Marron.

In the Novice class, Declan Tynan and Molly Maguire finished 1st, 2nd went to Shane Maguire (Ballinode) and Ciaran Maguire. 3rd Novice went to Shane Maguire (Stranooden) and Aaron McElroy. Martin and Gretchen Swinburne finished 4th in class with Ciaran McGorman and Ryan Farrell finishing 5th. 6th in the class went to Damien Hagan and Anthony McDonald.

PRO: Oisín Sherlock oisinsherlock97@gmail.com