Owen Murphy / Anthony Nestor edge epic battle in Mallow

The fourth round of the Valvoline Irish Forest Rally Championship, the Jim Walsh Cork Forest Rally in Mallow, proved to be an epic contest between Cork driver Owen Murphy (Mitsubishi) and his Limerick co-driver Anthony Nestor, who managed to overcome the spirited challenge of Monaghan’s Jost Moffett/John Rowan (Mitsubishi) to claim a 7.4 second victory.

Series leaders Michael O’Brien/ James O’Brien (Ford Focus WRC) were third – 44.6 seconds further behind.

On the opening stage north-east of Buttevant there was just eight tenths of a second between Moffett and Murphy with O’Brien 6.1 seconds further behind. Adrian Hetherington (Escort) was best of the two wheel drive competitors and occupied fourth from the Toyota Starlet of Shane McGirr with Frank Kelly (Escort) and Niall Henry (Subaru WRC) completing the top six.

Championship leader O’Brien was quickest through the second stage to cut the deficit to Moffett to 5.7 seconds as Murphy closed to within half a second of the rally leader even though he reported a misfire in his Mitsubishi.

Moffett was quickest on the repeat of both stages and arrived at theMallow service halt with a lead of 2.3 seconds. The Monaghan driver admitted that he pushed hard through the pair of stages - a scuff mark on the left hand side of his Mitsubishi testament to his efforts. Second placedMurphy was satisfied with his performance through S.S. 4 where he was just two-tenths of a second behind Moffett.

O’Brien in third arrived at the service park minus the front left wing of his Ford Focus WRC after the car stepped into the undergrowth, in overall terms he was 20.6 seconds behind of Murphy. Frank Kelly (Escort) had a brake disc bolt come adrift on S.S. 4, nevertheless, he led the two wheel drive and was fourth overall. Elsewhere, Gerard Lucey (Mitsubishi) had an untroubled run to occupy seventh in a top ten that also featured the Escorts of David Crossen, Seamus O’Connell and Mickey Conlon.

On the afternoon stages near Killavullen, Murphy reigned supreme and punched in the best times for all four stages. Having cut Moffett’s lead to seven tenths of a second on S.S. 5 he went into a 2.9 second lead on S.S. 6 and extended the margin to 7.4 seconds on the repeat of the two stages. Moffett took second while O’Brien retains the lead of the series courtesy of his third place. Frank Kelly (Escort), Niall Henry (Subaru WRC) and Shane McGirr (Starlet) rounded off the top six.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen ended its home round jinx on Rallye Deutschland when Sebastien Ogier led home a 1-2-3 for the team as he edged closer to a third World championship title. With just nine seconds between Ogier and Latvala, the double runs through the 45.61 stage on Baumholder on Saturday saw Ogier tighten his grip on the rally and by the end of the leg he was 33.8 seconds ahead of his team mate, who seemed a little perplexed as he thought he had a good run though the stage second time around where he lost 15 seconds to Ogier. The third VW driver Andreas Mikkelsen was a further one minute and 13.7 seconds behind. Irish driver Kris Meeke had four top-three stage times and climbed from 25th. to fourteenth. Yesterday, Ogier cruised to victory – 23 seconds ahead of Latvala. Meeke, who scored two points for posting the second fastest time on the Power Stage, finished twelfth.

A puncture during Saturday’s stages saw Craig Breen (Peugeot 208 T16) lose out on a podium finish in the WRC 2 category, he finished 18th. overall and fifth in WRC 2.