Devine overshoot keeps Moffett in Donegal Rally hunt

June 17, 2023 Rallyinsight

Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan braved a mix of greasy and wet conditions on day two of the Donegal International Rally to overtake Josh Moffett and hold a 4.7-second overnight lead.

The heavens opened on Saturday morning to give Donegal’s 100+ crews a tyre choice headache as they left Letterkenny’s service area.

Devine was fastest on a wet Carnhill stage, beating Josh Moffett by 5.3 seconds and moving into a 0.4-second lead.

Moffett responded straight away on Saturday’s second test, a greasy Garrygort. His Hyundai i20 R5 was fastest through stage eight by 1.1 seconds, retaking the lead from Devine.

The Donegal Rally duel continued as the cars approached the famous Knockalla hairpins. As if to add more suspense, the stage was delayed for an hour with rain falling on the 19-kilometre test just before the top crews were released from the Portsalon start-line.

Matt Edwards was the fastest driver over the spectacular pass. Differential trouble on Friday meant that the Welshman was limited to chasing a top-five position on Saturday. His first stage win of the weekend put him within two seconds of sixth-placed Desi Henry.

Callum Devine attacked Knockalla’s hairpins, putting thoughts of cold tyres, cold brakes, and wet roads to the back of his mind. His Volkswagen Polo R5 coped with the last-minute braking and rewarded Devine’s efforts with a time 7.2 seconds faster than Josh Moffett.

After Saturday’s first loop of three stages, the rally lead was back in Devine’s hands.

Sam Moffett and Garry Jennings had distanced themselves in third and fourth while Meirion Evans had jumped into fifth, 5.6 seconds behind Jennings.

Following Saturday’s lunchtime service halt, Devine repeated his Carnhill stage win to extend his lead to 9.8 seconds after stage ten. But mirroring Saturday morning’s results, Josh Moffett was the man to beat through Garrygort – keeping the pressure on Devine ahead.

In drier conditions, Knockalla was again to be Josh Moffett’s undoing in his battle with Devine. Friday’s pacesetter was only eighth-fastest through the final run of Knockalla, losing 6.9 seconds to Devine.

Devine’s Knockalla attack had given him a 15-second lead but amazingly he was still some way off the stage eleven’s benchmark.

That honour went to Edwards, who affirmed his mastery of Knockalla with the fastest time, 7.1 seconds quicker than anyone. His sweeping, smooth, pin-perfect lines were visual cues to his incredible stage time.

The stunning effort propelled Edwards up to fourth, 5.7 seconds ahead of his compatriot Evans and level on time with Jennings.

With two Saturday afternoon stages left to go, it looked like the Donegal International Rally was gradually playing into the hands of Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan.

The only uncertainty, or so we thought, was the weather – showers of rain skirted the stages but it proved to be a dry final loop of Carnhill and Garrygort.

Once again, Matt Edwards and David Moynihan were the ones setting the timesheets alight. They went fastest on the 13-kilometre Carnhill test by an incredible 9.6 seconds.

A set-up change in service left Josh Moffett feeling much happier aboard his Hyundai, especially on the drier sections. The technical tweaks did the trick as he finally broke Devine’s grip on Carnhill with Moffett finishing closest to Edwards’ breathtaking benchmark.

As Moffett found his mojo, Devine had made a mistake. An overshoot on one of Carnhill’s greasy junctions cost the rally leader several seconds and halved his advantage over Moffett.

Edwards made it a hat-trick of stage wins on Saturday’s Garrygort finale. His turn of speed through Saturday moved him from seventh to fourth, ending the day 5.1 seconds behind third-placed Sam Moffett.

Garry Jennings had no answer to Edwards’ newfound pace and his focus is now on keeping fifth from Meirion Evans who finished Saturday 3.8 seconds behind in sixth.

Josh Moffett managed to sneak a further 2.6 seconds out of Callum Devine’s rally lead on Garrygort to finish day two 4.7 seconds behind his Irish Tarmac Rally Championship rival.

With two runs of High Glen, Atlantic Drive, and Fanad Head lying ahead tomorrow – the stage is set for a thrilling end to what has been a fantastic edition of the Donegal International Rally.

Going with the theme, Moffett’s description of today’s turn of events is the perfect summary of what we have to look forward to:

“[Our pace] is there or thereabouts, there are a few chances we could take yet but there is still a long way to go.

“I’m just happy to get through today, it was tricky with all the different weather conditions.

“[The race] is pretty good and Matt [Edwards] is coming good behind as well so we need to keep an eye out for him. But look, we are still trying to catch Callum [Devine] – that is our main target.”