Edwards braced for challenging West Cork Rally

March 14, 2024 Rallyinsight

Irish Tarmac Rally Championship contender Matt Edwards is excited to reboot his campaign on this weekend’s three-day West Cork Rally.

The Welshman is back out in his C&M Motorsport Sales Ford Fiesta Rally2 after a tough start to his season on February’s Galway International Rally.

Edwards and co-driver David Moynihan are seeded fourth for West Cork, just behind two-time West Cork winner Josh Moffett, reigning Irish Tarmac Champion Callum Devine, and Galway winner Keith Cronin.

“I’m looking forward to West Cork,” said Edwards. “I have some knowledge of the stages but a lot of it will be new to me.

“Hopefully we will have a good test and can come with renewed confidence after Galway.

“The stages look really fast, maybe a bit dirtier than usual so that should be interesting.

“They are all long challenging stages so it is going to be a real test this weekend.”

Edwards finished fourth overall on the 2019 edition of the West Cork Rally, an important result in his second of three British Rally Championship titles.

Now the 39-year-old’s focus is on Irish Tarmac, though, and will be keen for a strong result in Clonakilty after his Galway hopes stalled when his Fiesta clipped a bank on the rally’s opening day.

A return to the stages for Galway’s second day of action allowed Edwards to set three top-three stage times in difficult conditions, including the fastest time on the rally’s penultimate test.

“Getting seat-time on Sunday in Galway was good although I am fairly familiar with the Fiesta chassis anyway.

“The biggest limitation for me is time competing in rallies and being able to put my experience into practice.

“Applying pacenotes to each event is crucial and understanding the speeds you go down different sections of each stage.

“Galway was a good reminder of how capable the car is of going through corners at high speeds. I think some of my pacenotes have been a bit conservative in places and I have probably been cautious with my entry speed coming into corners as well.”

The 2024 West Cork Rally gets underway with Ballinascarthy at 16:28 on Friday. Three more stages will complete day one, two of which will run in darkness.

A further 14 stages will take place over Saturday and Sunday as the 176 crews tackle a mammoth total of 255 stage kilometres.

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