Callum Devine and his co-driving team-mate Noel O’Sullivan will have the honour of leading away the 100-plus-strong field at the 47th Modern Tyres Ulster Rally in Newry this Saturday.
In their Michelin-shod Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 car, the Irish duo will be the first to sample the revised 2024 route at competitive speeds. In all, competitors can look forward to a total of ten closed-road special stages on Saturday, August 17, with these totalling over eighty miles.
The top 10 spots are dominated by the very latest Rally2 cars, with Devine’s Irish Tarmac Rally Championship title rivals Matt Edwards (M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2), Keith Cronin (M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2) and Josh Moffett (Citroen Racing C3 Rally2) seeded at two, three and four.
After five rounds of the cross-border series, 2016 Tarmac champion Keith Cronin is currently leading the way on 73 points courtesy of victories in Galway and West Cork with Mikie Galvin.
However, success for Welshman Matt Edwards on Easter’s Circuit of Ireland, and consecutive wins for County Londonderry’s Callum Devine, have propelled them into the title mix as well
Indeed, there is real strength in depth down the field, with the fiercely competitive modified class bringing the Ford Escort Mk2s of Frank Kelly, Damian Toner, Camillus Bradley, Oli Benton and John Devlin up against Jason Black’s rapid, rear-wheel-drive Toyota Starlet.
Fans can also look forward to seeing Adrian Hetherington’s immaculately restored Fiat 131 Abarth going up against the clock at the Northern Ireland Motor Club Limited meeting.
In the Rally4 category for front-wheel-drive machines, Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy-backed starlet Aoife Raftery (Peugeot 208) is set to trade stage times with Joseph Kelly, Jack Brennan and Se Og Martin who have all entered in the same French-developed supermini.
The action begins on Saturday morning with an opening loop of two stages comprising ‘Shinn Bridge 1’ and ‘Banbridge North 1’ before cars return to Newry for service at Modern Tyres’ Carnbane Industrial Estate headquarters.
After the second loop of three tests, crews will again make their way back to service, with a regroup planned in-between stages six and seven – ‘Shinn Bridge 2’ and ‘Banbridge North 2’ – at Banbridge Civic Building on the Downshire Road from 2pm.
Here, rally goers can see the cars up close and meet the crews. The third and final loop will comprise timed runs over ‘Kilrea Hill 2’, ‘Tyrone’s Ditches 2’ and ‘Babylon Hill 2’ before the winners cross the finish ramp at 5.30pm in Newry.
