Sam Moffett & Karl Atkinson secured the Irish Tarmac Championship in the most impressive fashion with overall victory on the Cork 20 International Rally on Sunday last 1st October.
Sam simply needed to start the event to add the Irish Tarmac Championship to his National & Forestry titles. In the end, Sam was involved in an event-long battle with his younger brother Josh for the overall win. Only two seconds split them going into the final test with Sam coming from behind to win after Josh went off and his car was too damaged to continue.
The Cork 20 Rally was based out of the town of Macroom and featured some classic stages such as Fuhiry, Lough Allua and Mullaghanish. Sam made his intentions clear from the start with fastest time on the opening test and after the first loop of four stages he held a scant 1.3 second lead from Josh and his co-driver Keith Moriarty. Alastair Fisher/Gordon Noble were 14 seconds back in 3rd. Moffett/Atkinson maintained their lead until the end of the day. They entered the overnight halt with a 10.8 second lead over Moffett/Moriarty. Joseph McGonigle/Ciaran Geaney were over two and half minutes back in 3rd after Fisher/Noble lost time with a mechanical issue.
The battle between the Moffett’s continued to roar over Sunday’s classic stages. Sam led until a scintillating time from Josh on Stage 14 saw Josh snatch the lead. The pair set identical times to a tenth of a second on stage 15 and Josh led by 2.3 seconds going into the final stage. Sadly, Josh went off on the stage resulting in Sam securing the win to cement his Championship treble. Fisher/Noble and McGonigle/Geaney completed the podium positions. Pauric Duffy/Kevin Glynn were runners-up in the National Rally while Jack Maguire/Seamus O’Grady had to resort to Rally 2 to get a finish. Stephen Wright/Arthur Kierans retired on the opening stage.
The Championship treble has never been completed in the same year before. Sam first won this year’s National Rally Championship after six straight wins in the first six rounds of the series. Last weekend he added the Irish Forestry Championship and secured the Tarmac Championship thanks to a win Killarney and consisted scores on all rounds of the series. Sam’s reliability record has been second to none, which has been the foundation to his tremendous success in 2017.
