LAST Sunday’s Sean Conlon Memorial Tipperary Forest Rally was a case of Mitchell conquering Mitchelstown.
The north Cork town-based event, in the third round of the Sligo Pallets Irish Forest Rally Championship, was won by Tyrone’s Jason Mitchell (Skoda Fabia Rally2).
Along with his Donegal co-driver Paddy McCrudden, Mitchell finished the six-stage event 3.2 seconds ahead of the Ford Fiesta Rally2 of Waterford’s Andrew Purcell and his Blackpool co-driver Liam Brennan.
Armagh’s Darren Gass (VW Polo GTi R5) and his Scottish co-driver Neil Shanks were a further 17 seconds behind in third.
Reigning National Forest rally champions Monaghan’s Derek Mackarel (Ford Fiesta R5) and his Inchigeelagh co-driver Eamonn Creedon were fifth in overall classification.
Clonakilty’s David Guest and his Millstreet born co-driver Liam Moynihan (Ford Fiesta Rally2) were the top County Cork crew. They finished a creditable ninth overall.
Elsewhere, Coachford’s Damien O’Donovan (Ford Fiesta) and his Bantry co-driver Vincent Goggin were second in Class 11F and Ballylickey’s Robert Cronin (Opel Corsa Rally4) and his Kilkenny co-driver Adam Heffernan finished fourth in Class 2.
Hopes of back-to-back wins in the current championship by pre-event series leader and top seed Cashel’s Pat O’Connell (Ford Fiesta R5) were dashed on the opening stage (Combaun) by a rear right wheel puncture that also ripped off the wheel arch.
Ballyvourney’s Gerard Lucey and his Kilnamartyra co-driver JJ Cremin failed to get to the start of the first stage as their Ford Fiesta R5 developed a transmission issue.
At the service park, Lucey said: ‘It seems I have no luck with the car, the second event in a row now that we have a problem. We will get it fixed and go out on "Super Rally" for the second and final loop just to get some seat time.’
Purcell (Ford Fiesta Rally2) set the pace on the 11.32km opener where he was 1.3s ahead of Mitchell with another Tyrone driver Niall McGonigle (Ford Fiesta Rally2) some 4.3s further behind in third.
The hanging dust was a major factor with yet another Tyrone driver Gareth Mimnagh (Ford Fiesta Rally2) occupying fourth spot followed by Mackarel/Creedon.
O’Connell and his Mitchelstown co-driver Mark Wiley were down in tenth spot following a puncture, 21.1s off top spot while Guest/Moynihan were eleventh, 1.5s further behind.
Mitchell posted the quickest time over the 12.69 km stage at Kilcoran that promoted him into a 7.4s lead over Purcell. O’Connell was best on Kilworth (SS3) that completed the opening loop of stages.
At the Mitchelstown service, rally leader Mitchell stated that while his pace was steady, he was overdriving his Skoda Fabia RS Rally in parts of the stages.
Purcell recalled a moment on the third stage where, on approach to a junction, he had his Ford Fiesta Rally2 completely out of line due to the hanging dust.
O’Connell was certainly maximising his efforts, illustrated by his third place position, albeit 22.3s adrift of the rally lead.
Clonakilty’s David Guest (Ford Fiesta Rally2) and co-driver Liam Moynihan finished ninth overall in last Sunday’s Sean Conlon Memorial Tipperary Forest Rally, the third round of the Sligo Pallets Irish Forest Rally Championship. (Photo: Martin Walsh)***
Competing in an Irish gravel event for the first time in fifteen years, former Irish Tarmac Rally champion Armagh’s Darren Gass, onboard an ex-Hayden Paddon VW Polo GTi R5, held fourth spot, ahead of the Ford Fiesta Rally2 of Niall McGonigle, who lost time with burst dampers on SS2.
Mackarel/Creedon were also in a spot of bother of SS2 when their Fiesta R5 lost power steering for a brief time, they completed the top six - 34.8s off top spot.
Guest/Moynihan were tenth.
Guest commented: ‘I’m enjoying it. I am using the same tyres we had on the car for the Moonraker Forest Rally. I clipped a rock on the stage at Kilworth, we will bolt on new tyres for the last loop.’
Mitchell had his second fastest stage time on SS4 as he extended his lead over Purcell to 11.2s but the latter, along with Gass, shared fastest time on the penultimate stage to trim Mitchell’s lead margin to 9.9s.
With one-minute intervals (instead of two minutes) deployed for the final stage there was late drama when Mitchell dropped vital time with a major overshoot.
He managed to fend off Purcell’s challenge and secured his second victory of the season by just 3.2s. Gass was third followed by O’Connell, who retains the lead of the series. Mackarel/Creedon were fifth.
When McGonigle crashed out, the organisers stopped the stage and credited the remaining competitors with a nominal stage time. Ninth placed Guest was pleased with his performance, stating:
‘We got a puncture on stage four but we had a good stage time on the second last stage (SS5), we were 5.1s off Pat O’Connell’s time and 4.4s slower than Derek Mackarel’s stage time, it’s still a learning curve.’
On his plans, he added: ‘We will have the car changed to tarmac specification for the Raven’s Rock Rally (July 6th), the Cork Forest Rally (August 10th) is also in the plan and probably the Cork ‘20" Rally (October 4/5th) and the Fastnet Rally (October 26th).’
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Dunmanway’s Jason McSweeney (Skoda Fabia R5) is hoping that his class win on the recent Assess Ireland Rally of the Lakes in Killarney is the springboard for more outings in the NAPA Auto Parts Irish Tarmac Rally Championship beginning with next month’s Donegal International Rally.
Entries closed for the Letterkenny based event, the fourth round of the series, on Friday last and it appears that the organising Donegal Motor Club have received some 282 entries.
In line with current regulations, only 165 cars will be allowed to start the three-day event.
‘Hopefully, we (himself and co-driver Liam Brennan) will be amongst the starters list,’ said McSweeney.
Commenting on his Killarney outing: ‘I was happy that we won the class, but the R5 car was underpowered for the classic stages (Moll’s Gap and Ballaghbeama) on the Sunday.
‘On the Shanera stage we were only ten seconds off Callum’s Devine’s time. The car (Skoda Fabia R5) is outdated in terms of what we are competing against, I couldn’t have done any better really.
‘I was probably delighted and deflated in the same breath, if that makes any sense.’ Following Donegal, McSweeney has penciled in the Ulster Rally, Cork ‘20’ and the Fastnet Rally.
