Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan claimed there first Irish Tarmac win of the season in the two day Circuit of Ireland Event as some of the leading front runners suffered mechanical issues on Saturday.
With the fastest times on Fridays pair of stages – a double run over the Ivy Hill stage near Aughnacloy, Ballylickey’s Keith Cronin and Killarney’s Mikie Galvin (Citroen C3 Rally 2) lead the Circuit of Ireland by 9.2 seconds.
The reigning Irish Tarmac champions proved best on what was a wet and slippery stage with copious amounts of standing water.
They continued to set the pace the following day and by stage 9 they had a lead of over 30 second on Devine and O’Sullivan with Matt Edwards and David Moynihan in third.
Drama happened when we got to stage 10. Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin had to attend to a brake issue in their Citroën C3 before starting, and then picked up a puncture in the stage. They lost over four minutes, and with it the race lead.
Edwards had to stop on stage with Eddie Doherty and Tom Murphy suffering a puncture to drop them well down the leaderboad.
This handed Devine the win finishing 1:24.9 ahead of Garry Jennings and Rory Kennedy who recovered well after suffering intercom issues on stage 1 to finish in 2nd spot in their Ford Fiesta Rally 2. David Kelly took third alongside Arthur Kierans in a VW Polo.
Cronin would still take some championship points to finish eight. Barry Morris and Darren Curran claimed the modified class win with Jonnie Mulholland and Ryan Farrell in the Fiesta Rally4 car taking the FWD victory.
