Motorsport: Rahill and Smith the best of the Irish in Karlstad
Moira's William Creighton (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2). Pic: Martin Walsh.
Former Billy Coleman award winner Cavan's Craig Rahill (Ford Fiesta Rally3) and his co-driver Conor Smith were the top Irish finishers in the BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia, round two of the European Rally Championship, which was based in Karlstad.
They finished second in the WRC3 category just over a minute behind the winners, Finland's Ville Vatanen and co-driver Joonas Ojala, also in a Fiesta. Carrick-on-Suir's Casey Jay Coleman was fourth in the category, almost two minutes behind Rahill.
Moira's William Creighton (Citroen C3 Rally2) had a disappointing outing in the event and failed to finish Saturday's leg, where he retired with suspension damage.
He explained, "A kilometre down the road there was a cut on the inside and there was a rock or something hard buried in the grass. I didn't see it on the recce and we hit and it broke the front suspension on the left.'
He added, 'It's not the way we wanted to finish today. It is a big shame. Sorry to the team and hopefully we can get out tomorrow."
Creighton and co-driver Liam Regan got seat time on Sunday's stages but retired three stages from the end with mechanical issues.
ERC Rally2 debutant Estonian Jaspar Vaher (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) was impressive on Saturday's leg and ended the day 8.8s ahead of Finland's Teemu Suninen with another Finn, Mikko Heikkila 5.5s further behind in third, the latter duo onboard Skoda Fabia RS Rally2s.
Suninen cut the deficit to 6,.6s on Sunday's opening stage but Vaher made a good response and was 9.7s clear by SS11, however, on the final third of SS12 he spun at high speed into trees.
Vaher and co-driver Rait Jansen were uninjured but their Toyota suffered front and rear damage - they returned for the final stages under Super Rally.
Suninen ended the stage as the new leader 4.8s ahead of Heikkila; however, he had an accident on the penultimate stage leaving Heikkila to take victory 17.7s ahead of Latvian Martin Sesks, also in a Skoda.
Onboard his Pirelli-shod Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, Max McRae, the grandson of the legendary Jimmy McRae, won the Borders Competitions Jim Clark Rally, the second round of the British Rally Championship.
Co-driven by Cameron Fair, he finished 30s ahead of the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 of Welsh aces Meirion Evans/Dale Furniss whose MEM team mates Osian Pryce/James Morgan were 32.6s further behind in third.
Pryce took the early lead on the opening Bothwell test and Evans was best on the longer Abbey St. Bathans stage, with local driver Garry Pearson (Ford Fiesta Rally2) a winner of SS3 prior to the first service.
McRae made his move on the night stages and led at the overnight halt as Evans forgot to connect his auxiliary spotlights before the final stage and Pryce struggled after some set-up changes.
McRae led by 12s and continued his good form into Saturday's stages as Pryce lost time with an overshoot, leaving Evans to take the battle to McRae; however, the latter offered no encouragement and went on to take a famous victory, his first on home soil.
Pearson's grip on fourth place slipped after an off-road excursion on Friday night and Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 debutant Sam Touzel capitalised to clinch the spot and secured his best-ever finish in a round of the BRCC. Elsewhere, Galway's Aoife Raftery (Ford Fiesta Rally3) topped the BRC3 category and Antrim's Ben McFall won the Junior BRC and BRC4 categories.
In the Porsche Carwow Carrera Cup Great Britain series, West Cork driver Michael Keohane, despite a bent steering arm, managed to finish second in the Master's category in Sunday's final race. Just like he did in the opening race Keohane made a quick start and reeled in Cavers on the first of the 14-lap race.
Then, on the third lap he was hit by the Porsche of another competitor with the impact damaged the steering of Keohane's Porsche. However, he still managed to get to the chequered flag behind team mate Cavers. In the opening race Keohane made a great start and led the category through the opening nine laps.
Indeed, he had moved up two places overtaking ProAm drivers Oliver Meadows and Stephen Jelley, who reclaimed the spot a few laps later as Keohane retained control of the Master's category. Unfortunately (and just like what happened in Brands hatch) he accidentally touched the ABS switch, this time, his Porsche locked up all four wheels with the front left tyre delaminating and immediately putting him out of the race that was won by his Century Motorsport team mate Carl Cavers.
1. M. Heikkilä/K. Temonen (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) 1h. 31m. 07.8s; 2. M. Sesks/R. Francis (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2)+15.7s; 3. I. Reiersen/S. Gustavsson (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2)+31.4s; 5. C. Carlberg/J. Eriksen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)+47.2s; 5. P. Hallberg/J. Stigh (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)+1m. 22.2s; 6. S. Tempestini/F. Maior (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2+1m. 55.1s.
M. McRae/C. Fair (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) 1h. 13m. 35.1s; 2. M. Evans/D. Furniss (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)+30.0s; 3. O. Pryce/J. Morgan (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)+1m. 02.6s; 4. S. Touzel/M. Freeman (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2)+1m. 23.9s; 5. G. Pearson/H. McKillop (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+1m. 46.3s; 6. E. Thorburn/P. Beaton (VW Polo GTi R5)+2m. 08.4s; 7. J. Ford/N. Shanks (VW Polo GTi R5)+2m. 13.6s; 8. S. MacBeth/A. Falconer (VW Polo GTi R5)+3m. 37.5s; 9. H. Brunton/D. Sturrock (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2)+4m. 57.9s; 10. D. Robertson/K. Beaton (Ford Fiesta Rally2)+5m. 08.5s.
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