Caldwell and McQuaid excel in Clare

STRABANE’S Ryan Caldwell and Dromore’s Hugh McQuaid excelled amongst some illustrious company at the final round of the Sligo Pallets Irish Forest Rally Championship, the Clare Stages Forestry Rally on Sunday.

Caldwell, who had Ballygawley’s Stephen O’Hanlon on the notes in their R5 Skoda Fabia, won the event outright, while McQuaid clinched the class 13 honours on the day and they both finished ahead of none other than former World Rally champion, Petter Solberg.

The Norwegian produced an impressive performance on the day, coming home 24th overall and first in class behind the wheel of a Land Rover Defender, which isn’t usually used for stage rallying.

Nonetheless, he still managed to claim a top 30 result, while Caldwell and McQuaid will be able to say they finished in front of a legend of the sport, regardless of what he was driving!

While finishing ahead of Solberg was one thing, winning the event outright was Caldwell’s main aim on the day and after a season of frustration, during which he has suffered no shortage of mechanical woe, the 22 year-old was delighted to be able to celebrate at the end of a rally for a change in 2024.

“My luck was bad this year, up until the Bushwhacker! I kept getting flat wheels. I don’t know if it was my problem or the tyres,” mused Caldwell.

“But this weekend it was good to get luck back on my side this weekend.”

Luck wasn’t on everyone’s side, however, as David Condell and Mick Coady crashed out on the first stage, which was blitzed by Derek Mackarel and Eamon Creedon, who posted the fastest time before Andrew Purcell and Liam Brennan in a similar Ford Fiesta R5 roared past stage end.

By the first service halt, Mackarel & Creedon held the advantage on the times but that wasn’t to last as 2023 Irish Forest Rally champion Caldwell set the time sheets alight on the mammoth 16.9km stage three, blitzing the field to jump into the event lead by 11.1 seconds by the stage end, although this would be slashed to 5.8 seconds later by Purcell & Brennan.

With the rain really beginning to pelt down stage four was cancelled for all crews on safety grounds coupled with a neutralised final stage for the 4WD crews meant Caldwell & O’Hanlon, in a Skoda Fabia R5, would claim victory on the Clare Forest Rally, with Purcell and Brennan second ahead of Mackarel and Creedon who wrapped up their Championship title with yet another podium finish.

“Andrew was going well. They had two good stages at the start and we had a bad one but other than that it was a fairly good rally for us,” Caldwell acknowledged. “It was slippy and rough – you could have thrown it away very quickly – so you had to drive with your head. We tried to do that the best we could.”

Caldwell will most likely compete in next weekend’s Dogleap Rally in the forests around Limavady where he’s keen to build on Sunday’s success before he starts planning for 2025.

“[Sunday’s win] has given me a good wee boost for next year. It gets your head back up again. My head was down for a good while due to the bad luck,” he said.

“I’m just not sure what we’re going to do next year. Nothing has been confirmed yet.”

While the battle for the rally victory was cut short with the final stage cancellation for the four-wheel-drive crews, it did still play host to one of the most remarkable finishes in recent times as Ioan Lloyd & Sion Williams drove themselves to two-wheel-drive victory with one of the most remarkable single stage performances of the year.

Stage by stage, the lead swung like a pendulum. Keelan Grogan and Ayrton Sherlock set the early pace in their Peugeot 208 Rally 4 before Craig Rahill and Conor Smith edged past in their Ford Fiesta Rally4. As the conditions deteriorated, the experience of Dromore’s Hugh McQaid and Declan Casey saw them briefly hold the lead in their Mk II Ford Escort, but the young Welsh stars lay in waiting.

With torrential rain easing and 16.9km ahead of them, Lloyd and Williams left nothing out there as they wen full attack. They pulled time out of some rivals at more than a second per kilometre, and it would be worthwhile as they returned to Scariff GAA complex as two-wheel-drive winners, ahead of Grogan & Sherlock and Rahill & Smith, making it a front wheel drive lockout on the final event of the year for the second successive season.

McQuaid, meanwhile, came home 11th overall and fourth two-wheel-drive in the end but first in class 13, finishing over a minute and a half in front of the BMW 320 of Damien McGauran and Shane Maguire, with Hal Lewis and Paddy McDonnell third.