Moffett shines on day one of West Cork Rally
Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes were back at their breathtaking best to claim a strong foothold in their West Cork Rally defence.
The reigning Irish Tarmac champions found themselves 8.2 seconds adrift from early rally leader Meirion Evans after West Cork’s second stage. In fact, Moffett was only fourth overall after two wet Clogagh and Ballinascarty tests.
Moffett responded, though, with an inspired tyre gamble on the next loop of two stages. His hard tyres proved to be the optimal package, propelling Moffett into a 7.1-second lead after stage four.
Last year’s West Cork winner continued to extend his advantage over the second half of Saturday to hold an 18.6-second overnight lead.
Meirion Evans and Jonathan Jackson mastered Saturday morning’s wet conditions but had no answer to Josh Moffett’s pace over the next four stages. They consistently set top three times, however, to hold a strong second overall after eight stages.
The Welshman sneaked a reminder in at the end of day one’s final stage – the gap to Moffett is 1.3 seconds less than that of his deficit at the same point in Galway.
Callum Devine set two fastest times on his way to third at the end of Saturday. A scare on Saturday’s final stage, sliding his Volkswagen Polo R5 along a bank, stemmed his fight back towards Evans and Moffett.
His stage-winning time on day one’s penultimate stage, Ring 2, was a tenth of a second faster than Evans. Incredibly, the top four times through the 14-kilometre test were separated by less than a second.
One of those within 0.7 seconds of Devine’s stage seven benchmark was Robert Barrable. The Dubliner was never far off the pace and completed day one in fourth position with a third-fastest time on Saturday’s final stage. Barrable’s pacey performance at the end of day one has him eyeing up Devine and Evans tomorrow.
Sam Moffett and Keith Moriarty completed the top five. A stage five spin and pop-off valve issues hindered his efforts and ultimately was unable to match the pace in front. He remained positive in his driving, though.
Modified
West Cork’s modified section had a typically topsy-turvy battle for top positions on its opening day of action.
Daniel McKenna started out front before being hauled in briefly by Kevin Eves and then finally on the second pass of Ring by Gary Kiernan.
Eves’ Toyota Corolla stormed through stage four, Ballinascarty to hold a 4.2-second lead at Saturday’s halfway point.
The Pettigo pilot’s West Cork adventure was to hit trouble on the subsequent Ring test. A burst brake line, caused by contact with a rock, forced Eves into temporary retirement. He was able to return under super-rally but any hopes of a top result had evaporated into thin air.
Meanwhile, Kiernan’s Ford Escort Mk2 – which was wearing some battle scars from stage three’s half-blocked hairpin – had found its rhythm and was clawing back into McKenna’s post-Ring advantage.
A string of top-ten overall times pushed Kiernan ahead of McKenna after stage seven.
Chris Armstrong and Jason Black are within touching distance of the top two in modifieds. Black lost 20 seconds when his steering rack came loose on stage five. The Toyota Starlet man praised his rivals for helping with repairs to keep him in the rally.
Armstrong and Black can make use of McKenna’s wise response to being told Kiernan had stolen his lead on Ring.
“There is a long way to go yet,” chuckled the experienced Escort ace.
Rally4
Keelan Grogan and Ayrton Sherlock have been in fine form aboard their Peugeot 208 Rally4. They lead the front-wheel-drive class by over a minute.
Shane Quinn jumped ahead of Cian Caldwell on Saturday’s final stage with only 2.3 seconds separating them after eight stages. Caldwell reported a loss of flat-shift over stages seven and eight which undoubtedly cost him some time.
Joseph Kelly is just a further eight seconds back in fourth, happy to be back in the mix with his Rally4 rivals. Casey Jay Coleman finds himself a minute further back in fifth after his Rally4 Fiesta suffered a misfire on West Cork’s first two tests.
Historic
Neil Williams and Anthony O’Sullivan held a 10-second lead in the Historic section with one stage to go on Saturday. Sebastian Ling was keeping the pressure on in second with the fastest time through Ring’s second pass.
Ling repeated his fastest time to reduce Williams’ lead to four seconds overnight.
Craig Breen dropped out of third on Ring with Wayne Evans inheriting his position.
Photos by D Harrigan Images
