On a day that seemed to bring with it every sort of condition, from morning rain to afternoon sunshine, that made every one of the six stages a challenge, it would be Mark Donnelly & Sean Ferris who would return to Cahir as victors of the Sean Conlon Memorial Tipperary Forest Rally, and claim a back-to-back winning start to the 2023 Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship.
Hot on the in-form Donnelly’s tail, today being his third victory in 2023 after the Championship opener in Killarney and the non-championship Fivemiletown rallies, would be 2022 Forest Championship runners-up Jordan Hone & Paul Hone in the sister AP-Art run Ford Fiesta.
With first and second going to the Fiesta pairing of Donnelly and Hone, it would be Vivian Hamill & Andrew Grennan who would bring their VW Polo GTi R5 home in third place, the pair claiming a fastest time on Stage 5 as well to compliment a great show of pace in the car.
The 2WD battle was a real ding-dong affair as the times swung in all manner of directions as reports of incidents filtered back from the stages.
In the end, as the champagned sprayed and the trophies were handed out, it was the incredibly unique Lada VFTS of Shane McGirr & Liam McIntyre who would claim the victory after a remarkable day’s rallying.
Sharing the Podium with the Lada and McQuaid’s Ford MK2 Escort was the Ford Fiesta Rally4 of Dylan Eves & Ryan Farrell who were setting blistering pace in the FWD car.
