Motorsport: Wood/Moriarty dominate in Wexford

Leading from the start Welsh driver Steve Wood (Subaru WRC) and his Limerick co-driver Keith Moriarty took a relatively comfortable victory in the Volkswagen Wexford Rally where they finished 40 seconds ahead of the Fiesta WRC of Maynooth’s Ian Barrett/Eoin O’Flaherty. 

Cavan’s Gary Kiernan (Ford Escort) and his Donegal co-driver Ryan Moore took third – they lost the position early yesterday but regained the spot almost as quickly and went on to finish strongly.

Switching from his usual S10 Subaru WRC to a hired S11 version owned by former national champion Niall Maguire, Wood was quickest through Saturdays’ opening pair of stages as he led Barrett by twelve a seconds. Untroubled, Wood took six seconds out of his rival on each stage. Barrett on a debut outing in his recently acquired Fiesta WRC suffered brake problems on the opening stage and throttle issues on the second stage. Gary Kiernan was some sixteen seconds further behind in third, his Mk. 2 Escort suffered from a lack of grip particularly on the first stage. Fourth placed Stephen McCann (Fiesta S2000) on his first outing in some six months also lacked traction.