Motorsport: Superb Richard Moffett seals back-to-back Kerry Winter Rally wins

Monaghan’s Richard Moffett and co-driver Darragh Kelly drift their Toyota Starlet out of a corner during their start to finish victory in the Tralee based Rose Hotel Kerry Winter Rally, the final round of the Top Part West Coast Rally Championship. Picture: Martin Walsh.

With a masterful display Monaghan’s Richard Moffett took his Toyota Starlet to back-to-back victories in the Tralee based Rose Hotel Kerry Winter Rally. Leading throughout the six stages and co-driven by Darragh Kelly, they finished 34.9 seconds ahead of the Monaghan/Cavan combination of Johno Doogan/Paul Lennon (Ford Escort). Limerick’s Christopher O’Callaghan and his Donegal co-driver Dale McGettigan, also in a Ford Escort, were 4.9s further behind in third.

Moffett seized the initiative on the opening but slippery Mount Eagle stage, with a steady pace he finished 8s ahead of Bailieborough’s Jonathan Pringle (Ford Escort), who reckoned his choice of hard compound rear tyres didn’t suit the conditions. Killarney’s Conor Murphy, a further 2.3s behind in third didn’t anticipate that the stage was as slippy as he experienced, his tyre choice was also too hard.

Killarney’s Rob Duggan (Ford Escort) arrived at the stage end with some brake issues, it didn’t allow him to commit and he returned to the service park to have the situation sorted, re-joining under Super Rally. Tyrone’s Ryan Loughran (Ford Escort) was another to utilise Super Rally due to a broken shaft prior to the start of SS1.

Pringle was best on SS2 where his tyres worked much better and he cut the deficit to Moffett to 6.8s. Murphy remained in third - 1.3s further behind with Cavan’s Johno Doogan untroubled in fourth. The Escorts of Chris O’Callaghan and Michael Carbin followed, the latter stymied by a non-charging battery that forced him to resort to using manual gearshift in order to conserve power.

On the repeat loop of stages that had dried considerably, Moffett was unrelenting and quickest on both stages. His performance, allied to the demise of both Pringle and Murphy saw him stretch his advantage to 33.6s. Murphy appeared to have a misfire that cleared itself by the end of SS3 only to retire with water pump issues on SS4 where Pringle saw his bid end when the exhaust manifold blew some 400 metres after the stage start.

Doogan was the major beneficiary, untroubled he slotted into second and managed to extend his advantage over O’Callaghan to 4.2s. The top three remained unchanged on the final pair of stages as Moffett took his second win. Behind, Monaghan’s Michael Carbin sorted the battery issue to secure fourth as Kenmare’s Vincent O’Shea (Darrian T90 GTR) and Donegal’s Patrick McHugh (Ford Escort) filled the remaining top six places.

Meanwhile, delegates at the Motorsport Ireland’s annual congress in Athlone on Saturday that ran under the theme of “A Positive Future” were brought up to speed on the governing body’s application for government funding (€15million) to run rounds of the World Rally Championship over a three-year term. M.I. president Aiden Harper said, “We're actively still working with the major events departments, Sport Ireland and the government. The general election, probably not just at the right time for us, but, like for any department, it's not easy out there when these things come up.” 

He continued, “But we are paddling under the water to try and deliver this enormous event to the country. And again, we will keep everybody updated on our club meetings as time goes on. You know, people say we haven't heard anything in a while. That's because it's with government and there's a lot of items going on there and we have to wait. But, are we confident? Pretty confident. Will we be overconfident? No. But when we land it, it will be an incredible thing for the country. There's no doubt about that.” 

In relation to the fact that no motions were allowed at their congress, Harper said, “I know people say, why are we not putting motions? We don't. Just because GAA do motions at Congress. We don't do motions at Congress. We have commissions and we have sub-commissions. We have a very clear chain on how we get items and instruments through the various vehicles we have, on to our Rules Advisory Group, on to our Council, etc. So, just so we're all clear on that, it's been the same message for each year so far. It's a very clear method on how we do our business within Motorsport. We don't do them by motions.” 

Rose Hotel Kerry Winter Rally (Final Round: Top Part West Coast Rally Championship) Tralee: 1. R. Moffett/D. Kelly (Toyota Starlet) 41m. 13.7s; 2. J. Doogan/P. Lennon (Ford Escort)+34.9s; 3. C. O'Callaghan/D. McGettigan (Ford Escort)+39.8s; 4. M. Carbin/C. Mohan (Ford Escort)+1m. 14.7s; 5. V. O'Shea/E. O'Donoghue (Darrian T90 GTR)+1m. 40.0s; 6. P. McHugh/P. O'Donnell (Ford Escort)+1m. 42.8s; 7. P. Purtill/P. Kelly (Ford Escort)+1m. 49.1s; 8. L. Downey/M. Murphy (Ford Escort)+1m. 51.2s; 9. M. Quinn/K. Doherty (Ford Escort)+1m. 52.1s; 10. M. Cahill/K. McArdle (Ford Escort)+1m. 52.3s.