Tyrone crews battle at the sharp end in Munster

TYRONE crews were in impressive form during the Munster Car Club Moonraker Forest Rally, which was a round of the Irish Forestry Championship.

At the top of the standings, Mountfield brothers, Patrick and Stephen O’Brien looked like the men to beat in their Skoda Fabia R5 after the first two stages when they held a half second advantage over British Rally Championship title chaser, Keith Cronin and Mike Galvin in a Volkswagen Polo R5.

Unfortunately, a soft tyre on stage three caused the O’Brien siblings to make an unscheduled ‘trip into the scenery’ on stage three and their hopes of overall victory all but ended there and then.

All was not lost, however, as they were still in the fight for second place with another Tyrone driver, Killyclogher’s Niall McCullagh and navigator Ryan McCloskey in an R5 Ford Fiesta, who they eventually beat by around 30 seconds, while Jordan and Paul Hone were fourth.

“The plan was to start fast and that’s exactly what we did,” explained Patrick after the event. “By first service we were in the lead of the rally, all be it by a slender 0.5 of a second over four times British Rally Champion Keith Cronin but more importantly held an 18 second lead over our closest championship contender Niall Mccullagh.

“Drama stuck on stage number three as we unfortunately de-beaded the rear right hand tyre and on a very fast left hand corner we had quite a large moment that left us in the scenery. However we never gave up, we got the car back onto the road and off we set again.

“At this point, it was all about trying to climb back as many overall positions as possible and score as many Championship points as we could. With our new objective being clear, we began hunting down those in front of us and quickly climbed back to second.

“Although our incident let Keith away, once we got fresh rubber on, we were able to match his times again at the end of the day. We will definitely have to race again.

“At the finish, we secured maximum Irish Forestry Championship points and this brings us back into the championship fight,” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Omagh driver, Gareth Mimnagh and navigator Barry McCarney, in another Fiesta R5, were sixth overall and second in class five, one place behind the Mitsubishi Evo of Derek Mackarel and Eamonn Creedon.

One of the drives of the day came from Strabane’s Ryan Caldwell and co-driver Grace O’Brien, who managed to finish a stunning ninth overall in their front-wheel-drive Rally4 Ford Fiesta to win the class two crown from Brendan Cumiskey and Dylan Doonan, with whom they enjoyed a day long battle.

Just outside the top 10 was another north Tyrone crew of Martin Cairns and Joe McNulty in 12th, with Dromore’s Hugh McQuaid and Martin Byrne 13th in their Ford Escort. And another Dromore man, Shane McCanney and co-driver Dairmaid Campbell, in a Toyota Corolla were 20th overall and first in class 11R, while Omagh’s Brian Little came home 38th and third in class 12 in his G3 Ford Escort.

Elsewhere, Ballygawley co-driver Denver Rafferty helped Damian Toner to a second place finish overall and top spot on the class seven podium at the Loughgall Country Park Rally on Saturday. The pair went toe-to-toe with Aaron McLaughlin’s four-wheel-drive R5 Ford Fiesta and while they finished 38 seconds adrift at the end, they were by far the fastest two-wheel-drive crew in their MkII Ford Escort.

Another Tyrone co-driver, Dungannon’s Declan Campbell, helped John Bradley to a fourth placed finish in another MkII Ford Escort, while Moy’s Shane Cullen and co-driver Michael Laverty were 23rd overall in their Escort.

Clogher pair, William and Ruth Fanin finished an excellent 28th overall in their Vauxhall Nova and second in class three, just one place ahead of Cookstown’s Stephen McGurk who was 11th in class six.

Another Clogher driver, Uel Crawford and his Fivemiletown-based co-driver, Gareth Henry, were 31st overall in a MkII Escort, while Cookstown’s Gerard Greene co-drove Ronan Greene to 35th overall in their Vauxhall Nova.

And Newmills driver, Richard Somerville and co-driver John Nicholl, meanwhile, brought their Escort home 41st overall.