High 5 for Kelly at Quality Hotel Clonakilty West Cork International
KN Group/Northgate Vehicle Hire backed Donegal driver Donagh Kelly, the former National & Tarmac rally champion, extended his already long list of achievements by becoming the first driver ever to win the Quality Hotel Clonakilty West Cork International five years in a row.
At the finish in Clonakilty, he and co-driver Conor Foley had almost two minutes to spare over runners up Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes, who led the R5 challenge to Kelly’s more powerful Ford Focus World Rally Car. The Monaghan-Wexford pair took their Fiesta to maximum points towards the Clonakilty Blackpudding/Michelin Irish Tarmac title, as WRC cars are no longer eligible for the series.
Defending Tarmac title holder Sam Moffett, Josh’s elder brother, had a good day yesterday, as he climbed from fourth place at the end of Saturday’s eight stages, to overtake Declan Boyle, finishing the weekend just nine seconds behind his sibling. Dubliner Rob Barrable, a former West Cork winner, was fifth this time, ten seconds down on Boyle.
Callum Devine from Co Derry had his first event on home soil as Young Rally Driver of the year, and had a great drive to bring his one litre Fiesta R2T into eleventh place overall, beaten only by the much more powerful WRC and R5 cars which scored a clean sweep of the top ten positions. The Billy Coleman Award winner took a comfortable class win.
CORK M C QUALITY HOTEL CLONAKILTY WEST CORK INTERNATIONAL RALLY (ROUND 1 OF CELTIC RALLY TROPHY, ROUND 1 OF CLONAKILTY BLACKPUDDING/MICHELIN IRISH TARMAC CHAMPIONSHIP AND ROUND 1 OF PLASTICBAGS.IE SOUTHERN 4 RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP):
1 Donagh Kelly/Conor Foley (Ford Focus WRC) 1h 52m 54s,
2 Josh Moffett/Andy Hayes (Ford Fiesta R5) 1h 54m 40s,
3 Sam Moffett/Karl Atkinson (Ford Fiesta R5) 1h 54m 49s,
4 Declan Boyle/James O’Reilly (Ford Fiesta WRC) 1h 56m 03s,
5 Rob Barrable/Damien Connolly (Ford Fiesta WRC) 1h 56m 13s,
6 Desi Henry/Liam Moynihan (Ford Fiesta R5) 1h 56m 29s,
7 Daniel Cronin/Shane Buckley (Ford Fiesta R5) 1h 57m 51s,
8 Stephen Wright/Arthur Kierans (Ford Fiesta R5) 1h 58m 11s,
9 Eugene Donnelly/Mark Kane (Hyundai i20 R5) 2h 00m 29s,
10 Jonny Greer/Kirsty Riddick (Ford Fiesta R5) 2h 01m 34s.
Class winners:
Callum Devine/Brian Hoy (Ford Fiesta R2T),
William Mavitty/Brian Daniels (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9),
John Coyne/Stephen Joyce (Porsche 997 RGT).
NATIONAL RALLY:
1 Gary Kiernan/Ryan Moore (Proton S2500) 1h 58m 28s,
2 John Dalton/Gwynfor Jones (Darrian T90 GTR) 2h 00m 34s,
3 Kevin Eves/Chris Melly (Toyota Corolla) 2h 02m 06s,
4 Jason McSweeney/Anthony O’Conaill (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) 2h 02m 16s,
5 John Bonner/Emmet Sherry (Ford Escort) 2h 02m 24s,
6 Eugene Meegan/Darragh Mullen (BMW 1M) 2h 02m 46s.
HISTORIC RALLY:
1 Owen Murphy/Anthony Nestor (Talbot Sunbeam) 1h 25m 46s,
2 Barry Jones/Iwan Griffiths (Ford Escort) 1h 26m 08s,
3 Duncan Williams/Llion Williams (Ford Escort) 1h 29m 38s.
JUNIOR RALLY:
1 Gary McNamee/Brian Brady (Honda Civic) 50m 35s,
2 Colin O’Donoghue/Donagh Crowley (Ford Escort) 50m 43s,
3 Mick Lonergan/Shane Corcoran (Honda Civic) 53m 05s.
