Sam Moffett leads from start to finish in Mayo Rally
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Leading from the start, Monaghan’s Sam Moffett (Hyundai i20 Rally2) and co-driver James O’Reilly overcame the conditions and the opposition to take victory in the Mayo Rally, the opening round of the Triton Showers National Rally Championship. On a day of high attrition, they finished the Ballina based event 43.5s ahead of the VW Polo GTi R5 of Ballylickey’s Daniel Cronin and Dunmanway’s Donnchadh Burke. The Kilkenny/Limerick duo of Eddie Doherty/Tom Murphy (Skoda Fabia R5) were 27.7s further behind in third.
There was drama aplenty on the opening stage when four of the top six all struggled to negotiate the extremely slippery conditions near Corroy. Top seed Josh Moffett retired his Citroen C3 Rally2 with a damaged radiator after hitting a bale. Desi Henry and Declan Boyle, also in Citroen C3s, also fell foul of the conditions at the same location and while Boyle got away with his misdemeanour, he slid off some two kilometres further down the stage and damaged the right rear wheel. His son, Michael Boyle (VW Polo GTi) also crashed at the earlier location. Sam Moffett punched in the best time to take the lead in a somewhat unusual and unpredicted top ten. Armagh’s Marty Toner (Proton Satria) was 22.5s behind followed by the VW Polo GTi R5’s of Aidan Wray and Daniel Cronin, both of whom were within 6.2s of second spot. Cronin was fortunate only to lose a few seconds when he slid off and was pushed back on the road by some marshals. The Skoda Fabia R5s of Eddie Doherty and Jason McSweeney completed the top six, the latter was in a drain for a few seconds on SS1.
Cronin was best on SS2 to move into second - 19.8s behind Moffett, who was aware his performance wasn’t good enough. A steady run through both stages saw Longford’s Tommy Doyle (Hyundai i20 R5) through to third followed by Wray, who adopted a similar approach. McSweeney moved into fifth ahead of Toner and Doherty. The top ten was completed by James Ford (Citroen C3 Rally2), who had intercom woes; Mark Alcorn (Ford Escort), who led the two wheel drive category and David Guest (Ford Fiesta Rally2).
Having made some adjustments to his Hyundai, Moffett was 14s faster than Cronin on SS3 and just 0.1s up on SS4 as he arrived at the service park with a 33.9s advantage. Cronin reckoned he was trying too hard on SS4 and probably lost a few seconds. Although a spin and an overshoot demoted Ford to seventh after SS3, he set a fine time on SS4 to slot into third 1.3s ahead of Doyle. A change of brake pads saw Doherty move to fifth followed by Wray and Jason McSweeney, who reckoned he was losing time at the beginning of both stages. David Guest retired after he slid wide on a square left and broke the rear arm of his Ford Fiesta Rally2. Mark Alcorn (Escort) bowed out on SS4.
The fifth stage was cancelled for operational reasons with Moffett increasing his lead to 38.4s on SS6; Tommy Doyle joined the list of casualties. Moffett and Cronin eased off to claim their respective top two places; Ford beached his Citroen on the penultimate stage that promoted Doherty to claim third. Wray, McSweeney and Toner rounded off the top six.
Meanwhile, Ballylickey’s Robert Cronin, competing in the Team Parker Racing prepared Porsche 718 Cayman GT4, won both races in the GT4 category of the Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe series in Barcelona.