Hillclimb & Rally Motorsport Ireland Weekend events
Even though he suffered his first defeat of the year, Clare driver Rob Dwane virtually clinched the Naylor Engineering National Hillclimb and Sprint Championship for the first time thanks to scoring his eighth win from nine rounds in Donegal yesterday.
The 21 year-old had to give best to the Radical sports car of Gerard O’Connell in Saturday’s event on the famous Knockalla coast road on the Fanad peninsula, with less than one fifth of a second separating the two rivals. However, Dwane was back to winning form yesterday, finishing well clear of runner up Tim Nunn.
Defending Triton Showers National Rally champion Sam Moffett was 46 seconds ahead of Joe McGonigle in yesterday’s Sligo Stages Rally, taking the lead when this year’s two main title contenders crashed off the road on consecutive stages towards the end of the rally.
Moffett’s younger brother Josh, the rally leader at the time, was first to go, on the sixth of nine stages, while double champion Declan Boyle retired on the following stage, leaving runner up McGonigle to take over the points lead.
In Ballyvourney, Co Cork, defending Hewison Autotest champion Ian White and challenger Guy Foster took a win apiece in the double header opening weekend of the new season, with Chris Grimes and Darren Quille taking turns at finishing third.
