Day 1
Meirion Evans takes a slender 6.8 second cushion over Callum Devine into the Sunday leg of the O’Connell Group Cork ‘20’ International Rally, the penultimate round of the Irish Tarmac Championship.
Knowing he requires a win to be in the title mix ahead of the Ulster Rally (August 17-18), Evans needed only two Saturday stages to shoot to the top of the leaderboard with team-mate Jonathan Jackson.
As conditions improved after lunch, so too did the Welshman’s times; he cleared both ‘Curraglass’ and ‘Inch’ fastest to pull out an 11-second lead with just two more stages remaining.
Second was Devine who was struggling to find a rhythm that he was happy with which, in turn, meant he could not commit to his pace notes.
Holding third place overnight is defending Tarmac champion Josh Moffett who elected to start the event in the newer Hyundai i20 Rally2 his older brother Sam has been using in recent months.
Frank and Lauren Kelly lead the modified section by 14.5 seconds over Eddie Doherty and Tom Murphy. Ioan Lloyd and Sion Williams are flying in their Peugeot 208 Rally4 leading championship rivals Cian Caldwell and Casey Jay Coleman.
A stunning final stage effort gave Michael McDaid and Declan Casey a three-second lead in the Historics class.
Day 2
Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan grab their fourth win on the trot after a scintillating battle with Meirion Evans and Jonathan Jackson.
On a damp morning it was important to choose the right tyre on the morning loop of stages. Overnight leader Evans led the field but it was Devine who got the better of his welsh counterpart.
Evans piped Devine on stage 10 with stage 11 cancelled, it was going to be a closing running between the pair as Josh Moffett was slowly becoming distant in third place.
By stage 13 Devine made his move. Taking nearly 9 seconds off Evans to lead the event and that is how it remained as they crossed the finishing line.
With Devine decreasing Moffett’s gap in the Irish Tarmac standings, it is all to play for in the Ulster Rally in just a couple of weeks time.
Ryan Loughran impressed once again in his Fiesta R2 to come home in 4th with James Ford rounding off the top 5 in his Citroën C3.
In the modified section the Kelly duo of Frank and Lauren couldn’t hold on to their lead as Eddie Doherty & Tom Murphy piped them on the final day. Ioan Lloyd and Sion Williams comfortably won the FWD battle while Trevor Wilson & Paul Mulholland were the victors in the historic class.
