Moffett and Moriarty men on mission at Mayo Rally

The event was the opening round of the Triton Showers backed Motorsport Ireland Rally Championship

Josh Moffett and Keith Moriarty, with their Hyundai i20 R5, celebrates after winning the Mayo Stages Rally Round 1 of the National Rally Championship in Claremorris. 

Leading ffrom start to finish, Monaghan’s Josh Moffett (Hyundai i20 R5) and his Limerick co-driver Keith Moriarty won the McHugh’s Service Station Mayo Rally, the opening round of the Triton Showers backed Motorsport Ireland Rally Championship. On completion of the day’s eight stages they finished 27.9 seconds in front of VW Polo GTi R5 debutant Dubliner Robert Barrable and his Donegal co-driver Paddy Robinson. Third place and 32.3 seconds adrift were Monaghan’s Stephen Wright and his Killarney co-driver Ger Conway.

On a crisp morning with the odd few patches of frost in shaded areas of the stages near Ballindine, Moffett was quickest on the 16.12 and 9.7 kilometre stages. He didn’t have it all his own way as Barrable, on his debut in a VW Polo GTi R5, was only 1.4 seconds and 2.3 seconds behind on the respective stages to slot into second - 3.7 seconds behind as the crews arrived at the Claremorris service park. Wright was best of the rest - 14.2 seconds off top spot. Aidan Wray (Fiesta R5) lost time when the tyres went off towards the stage finish, he slotted into fourth followed by Maynooth’s Paul Barrett (Fiesta R5), who enjoyed a good run.