There was a grandstand finish to the Hotel Kilmore Cavan Stages Rally last Sunday. A counting round of the Motorsport Ireland Triton Showers National Rally Championship and the Sligo Pallets Border Rally Championship.
Eventual winners Josh Moffett and Keith Moriarty entered the final stage near Drung 0.3 of a second in arrears to Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan. The Hyundai i20 crew dug deep over the challenging test. Their task not helped by the melting tar caused by the day’s high temperatures. Attempting to turn the deficit into a 1.8-second victory.
It was all or nothing, Josh noted at the finish ramp. We took a lot of chances out there this evening. It was a bit dusty out there this morning and in the end. The tar was slightly melting which made for a challenging day, but we are delighted.
It was their second win of the 2023 Triton campaign after coming out on top in April’s Circuit of Kerry. Earlier in the day Moffett survived a hair-raising spin on stage five and overcame a mysterious engine management fault that resulted in the car’s engine cutting out. Round one winners Devine and O’Sullivan were credited with a poor time on stage one, attributed to a malfunction within the event's timing system and this threw their concentration in the early part of the rally. When the time was eventually corrected, just ahead of stage seven the Volkswagen Polo crew found themselves in the rally lead in the thick of a battle for overall honours. Third seeds Desi Henry and Paddy Robinson made their maiden championship appearance of the year and finished where they started in third.
We had a few altercations with Cavan ditches, they jumped out in front of us said Henry.
Engine difficulties
His Citroen C3 Rally2 also developed an engine management system similar to the one Moffett experienced. Cathan McCourt and Barry McNulty were fourth in their first outing in a new Ford Fiesta. He admitted that he took the early part of the rally to get acquainted with his new mount. Stephen Wright and Ger Conway were fifth in Class in their Fiesta R5
Just like the main rally, the modified category was decided on the last stage. Kevin Eves and Chris Melly entered the final stage, five seconds behind long-time rally leaders Daniel McKenna and Andrew Greenan. The Toyota Corolla driver threw caution to the wind to take the category victory by just 0.1 of a second over his Ford Escort rival. Dessie Keenan and Jason McKenna rounded out the top ten in their Ford Escort.
The Monaghan crew have not rallied since the Midland Moto Stages Rally in March. They admitted it took until the latter part of the rally to get-up to the speed of their busier rivals.
