Motorsport: Pat O'Connell claims Forest Rally victory in Dungarvan
Cashel's Pat O'Connell and his Mitchelstown co-driver Mark Wiley took their Ford Fiesta R5 to an exciting victory in the Dungarvan based EARS Motorsport Moonraker Forest Rally, the second round of the Sligo Pallets Irish Forest Rally Championship. Picture: Martin Walsh.
With the leading margin never more than four seconds and a lead change on three occasions, Cashel's Pat O'Connell and his Mitchelstown co-driver Mark Wiley took their Ford Fiesta R5 to an exciting victory in the Dungarvan based EARS Motorsport Moonraker Forest Rally, the second round of the Sligo Pallets Irish Forest Rally Championship.
In a close contest they finished just three seconds in front of the VW Polo GTi R5 of Tyrone's Niall McCullagh/Ryan McCloskey with Ballygawley's Vivian Hamill (Ford Fiesta Rally2) and Wexford's Gary Nolan just 0.5s further behind in third.
Defending Forest Rally champion Monaghan's Derek Mackarel led O'Connell by 1.8s after the opening Coolatoor stage but retired after he touched a chicane and beached his Ford Fiesta R5 on SS2 where O'Connell inherited top spot just 0.2 ahead of McCullagh.
O'Connell hit a chicane on SS3 as stage winner McCullagh became the third different leader in as many stages, the latter reckoned the opening stage was the most difficult as he couldn't find a good rhythm. Tyrone's Niall Devine (Ford Fiesta R5) in third opined he should have chosen a harder compound tyre. Junior WRC driver Donegal's Eamonn Kelly had his lesser powered Ford Fiesta Rally3 in fifth spot.
O'Connell dropped to third on SS4 when he bent a steering arm of his CAP Fiesta R5 and then stalled at a junction near the stage finish. Hamill was best on the stage to move into second 4s behind leader McCullagh in the Dom Buckley hired VW Polo GTi R5.
On the penultimate stage (The Vee) and despite the steering issue, O'Connell pushed hard to try to win the stage prize in honour of the late Sarah Purcell, although he lost that award by 1.3s to Devine, his stage time saw him regain the lead (3s) from McCullagh with Hamill in third. Eamonn Kelly was a fine fourth. That ended the action as the stage interruption time awarded to almost the entire entry after a J1000 competitor blocked the final stage. It was O'Connell's his first major win in fourteen years.
Tyrone's Hugh McQuaid (Ford Escort) won the modified section and Billy Coleman award winner Cavan's Craig Rahill (Ford Fiesta R4) won Class 2 and was second in the two-wheel drive category. Kilkenny's David Travers (VW UP) won the J1000 category.
Meanwhile, reigning Junior World Rally champion Estonian Romet Jurgenson (Ford Fiesta Rally2) took his inaugural victory in rallying and in a round of the Probite British Rally Championship with an impressive victory in the Carlisle Stages Rally where he was fastest in all but one of the five stages. He finished 14.4s ahead of Moira's William Creighton (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) with Welsh driver Garry Pearson (Ford Fiesta Rally2) taking third place - 50.9s further behind, the latter 9.8s ahead of Ballylickey's Keith Cronin (Citroen C3 Rally2).
Jurgenson was best on the short opening stage 1.1s ahead of Max McRae (Citroen C3 Rally2). Creighton set the pace on SS2 to move into the lead 1.1s ahead of Jurgenson as McRae's Citroen C3 Rally2 developed an engine malady that forced him to retire after the stage finish.
Jurgenson regained the lead on SS3 albeit by 0.2s with Creighton, Pearson and Cronin, who had closed the gap to Pearson to just 0.7s, filling the top four places at the first service.
The penultimate stage was full of incident when Creighton lost around 13s with an overshot at a chicane and Cronin dropped some 40s when his Citroen mysteriously cut out. Jurgenson was incident free to move 13.5s clear and added a fraction of a second on the final stage to take what was also his maiden rally victory. He said, “It’s a first-time victory and it is a really cool feeling. I have really enjoyed today, OK the morning was a bit annoying because of all the dust I couldn’t enjoy it. But the win feels amazing." Irish driver Joseph Kelly (Peugeot 208 Rally4) won the Junior category.
Elsewhere, Kesh driver Garry Jennings (Ford Fiesta Rally2) and his Letterkenny co-driver Rory Kennedy took a start to finish victory in the Proflex Rally Isle of Man where they finished 38.7s ahead of the Toyota GR Yaris of Jason Pritchard/Phil Clarke. The West Cork crew of Cal McCarthy/Eric Calnan (Citroen C3 Rally2) retired from sixth place on SS14 with oil pressure problems.
EARS Motorsport Moonraker Rally (Round 2, Sligo Pallets Irish Forest Rally Championship) Dungarvan: 1. P. O'Connell/M. Wiley(Ford Fiesta R5) 39m. 11.5s; 2. N. McCullagh/R. McCloskey (VW Polo GTi R5)+3.0s; 3. V. Hamill/G. Nolan (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+3.5s; 4. E. Kelly/C. Mohan (Ford Fiesta Rally3)+13.8s; 5. N. Devine/L. McIntyre (Ford Fiesta R5)+19.8s; 6. S. Dickson/M. Coady (Ford Fiesta R5)+27.7s; 7. J. Dunphy/G. Shinnors (Ford Fiesta R5)+49.6s; 8. J. Burke/L. Moore (Ford Fiesta R5)+1m. 12.5s; 9. D. Guest/L. Moynihan (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+1m. 17.3s; 10. M. O'Brien/J. Cotter (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+1m. 41.5s.
Carlisle Stages Rally (Round 2, Probite British Rally Championship): 1. R. Jurgenson/S. Oja (Ford Fiesta Rally2) 45m. 43.8s; 2. W. Creighton/L. Regan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)+14.4s; G. Pearson/H. McKillop (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+1m. 05.3s; 4. K. Cronin/M. Galvin (Citroen C3 Rally2)+1m. 15.1s; 5. C. Black/J. Morton (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+1m. 21.2s; 6. M. Hirst/D. Dear (Skoda Fabia R5)+1m. 25.9s; 7. M. Evans/D. Furniss (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)+1m. 28.8s; 8. E. Payne/P. Walsh (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+1m. 32.5s; 9. J. Ford/N. Shanks (Citroen C3 Rally2)+1m. 49.8s; 10. S. Macbeth/D. Forsyth (Skoda Fabia R5)+2m. 49.4s.
Proflex Manx Rally, Isle of Man: 1. G. Jennings/R. Kennedy (Ford Fiesta Rally2) 1h. 40m. 17.3s; 2. J. Pritchard/P. Clarke (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)+38.7s; 3. H. Hunter/A. Marchbank (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+1m. 26.2s; 4. M. Kelly/W. Atkins (VW Polo GTi R5)+1m. 29.6s; N. Roskell/R. Fagg (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+1m. 34.8s; 6. S. Touzel/M. Freeman (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+1m. 42.6s; 7. D. Wright/J. Nicol Ford Fiesta Rally2)+2. 054.8s; 8. G. Mimnagh/B. McCarney (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+3m. 25.2s; 9. R. Loughran/G. Doherty (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+4m. 12.7s. 10 S. Wood/K. Hull(Citroen C3 Rally2)+6m. 27.6sÂ
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