Donegal’s Michael Boyle and Dermot McCafferty (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) won an exciting O’Connell Group Cork 20 Rally that brought the curtain down on the NAPA Auto Parts Irish Tarmac Rally Championship.
The slippery conditions, remnants of Storm Amy, made for a difficult opening loop of stages to the south-east of Rathcormac. Michael Boyle (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) mastered them best on SS1 where Clonakilty’s David Guest retired his Ford Fiesta Rally2 within the opening three kilometres of the stage, he returned later under Super Rally.
The rally quickly developed into a battle between Michael Boyle and Desi Henry, who was best on SS3 to take a 2.4s lead.
They traded times and places on the second loop with Boyle reclaiming the lead after SS4 only for Henry to go ahead a stage later and then extend his lead to 5.3s on the sixth stage. Boyle lost time with brake issues that were traced to the wheel hub.
Behind the leading pair, Declan Boyle, was a further 14.7s adrift in third followed by the Ford Fiesta Rally2 cars of Ryan Loughran and Matthew Boyle and the Skoda of Casey J. Coleman.
Henry dominated all three stages of the day’s final loop to lead 16.1s at the overnight halt with Boyle reckoning his Skoda wasn’t handling correctly.
Declan Boyle’s Skoda benefitted from a change of springs and some suspension tweaks.
They finished nine seconds in front of the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 of Declan Boyle (Michael’s father) and his co-driver Welshman Patrick Walsh with the Ulster pairing of Ryan Loughran/Dale McGettigan (Ford Fiesta Rally2) 26.8s further behind in third.
Donegal Crew John O Donnell and Paddy Robinson the Irish Tarmac Rally Historic Championship while Patrick Walsh secured the co-drivers title and Mikey Browne brought home the ITRC Junior Championship
