Tyre gamble propels Moffett into West Cork Rally lead
A week of wash-out weather made West Cork Rally’s opening two stages, Clogagh and Ballinascarty, the ultimate challenge for Irish Tarmac’s leading crews on Saturday morning.
Tyre choice was as topical as ever but when it came to the on-stage action, Meirion Evans was happy to let his time on stage one, Clogagh, do the talking.
The Welshman tightened his belts and braved the elements, splashing through a series of sections with standing water to set the fastest time by three seconds.
Sam Moffett and Keith Moriarty were Evans’ nearest challengers even though their Hyundai i20 Rally2’s handbrake was not working. However, the issue hindered Galway’s podium finishers more on stage two.
Their compromised package was magnified through Ballinascarty’s hairpins and Moffett dropped three places to fifth overall, 10.5 seconds behind Evans.
Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan won West Cork’s second stage to jump into second position, less than three seconds behind Evans.
Evans and Jonathan Jackson lost some momentum through Ballinascarty with fears their Volkswagen Polo R5 was bearing a puncture.
The ever-consistent Robert Barrable held third after stage two. Ballinascarty was a test the Dubliner was pleased to complete without issue as it had plagued him on previous West Cork Rallies.
Last year’s West Cork Rally winners, Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes, finished the first two stages in fourth overall.
Gareth MacHale and Brian Murphy struggled through Clogagh with their Polo R5 set up too hard for West Cork’s stages. Unfortunately, the 2010 Irish Tarmac Champions crashed out on the next test, leading to a stage cancellation.
Clonakilty’s Cal McCarthy survived a massive moment on the standing water of stage one while Declan Boyle and Jonny Greer haemorrhaged time running on too hard a compound of tyre.
Junior WRC frontrunners William Creighton and Liam Regan barely got going before they had to change one of their Ford Fiesta Rally3’s wheels. The puncture cost them over three minutes on stage one.
West Cork’s modified crews all arrived at the end of stage one expecting a poor time. It was Daniel McKenna who went quickest despite his Ford Escort Mk2 losing paddle-shift functionality.
Less than two seconds separated the top three with Kevin Eves and Jason Black keeping McKenna honest.
Gary Kiernan remarked that he had more moments on West Cork’s opening stage than he has had on his previous two rallies. Kiernan dropped five seconds to the modified leaders.
Josh Moffett maximised West Cork’s drying roads with the fastest time on stage three to jump into the lead from fourth overall. Moffett and Hayes were an incredible nine seconds faster than nearest rival Meirion Evans on Clogagh 2.
Moffett’s Hyundai was wearing harder compound tyres and revelled in the drier conditions.
Callum Devine was 0.2 seconds shy of Evans’ Clogagh effort, fearing he had a puncture after clipping a rock through the 18-kilometre test.
Desi Henry’s run in his recently acquired Citroen C3 Rally2 came to an end on stage three. His off left the hairpin in question an even trickier challenge for the cars to follow. Several crews had a tale to tell about their struggles to navigate their way around Henry’s stricken C3.
Moffett continued the shift in momentum to build a 7.1-second advantage at the halfway point of West Cork’s opening day. Evans’ margin to Devine was reduced to 0.6 seconds after stage four. Devine was pleased with his damage limation on wet tyres.
Sam Moffett sneaked into fourth ahead of Robert Barrable while Jonny Greer had to bear a noisy cooling fan on his way to sixth overall.
