McSweeney honoured to finish as top West Cork driver in rally

DUNMANWAY’S Jason McSweeney (Ford Fiesta R5) was the top local driver in the Clonakilty Park Hotel West Cork Rally.

Co-driven by Dublin Pike’s Liam Brennan, they finished seventh overall. Meanwhile, Clonakilty’s Cal McCarthy and his Rosscarbery co-driver Eric Calnan took their DGM hired Citroen C3 Rally 2 to tenth place. 

For McSweeney, winning the Paddy Keohane Memorial Trophy was hugely important.

‘It’s a great honour,’ he said, ‘we are very friendly with Michael [Keohane] and the family have always supported me in my rallying. It matters a lot, especially when you are friends with someone.’

On his performance, he said: ‘I really couldn’t have done any more, given that the car is the Mk1 generation R5.’ 

In the past and particularly when he campaigned a Mitsubishi Lancer, the Dunmanway man didn’t always enjoy the best of good fortune.

‘That was pure heartbreak,’ he said, ‘The car was fine all weekend, Tom Gahan Motorsport did a great job once again.’

On his favourite stage of the rally, he remarked: ‘Strangely enough, I liked the Ardfield stage.

‘I thought we would get hammered for power, but there was a lot more driving in it this year and we seemed to go very well.’ His next outing is the Circuit of Kerry (April 2nd), the second round of the national series. 

‘The plan is to continue with the national championship and we will see how we are going after Kerry,’ he added.

Meanwhile, Cal McCarthy was the only other local driver to secure a top-ten finish. 

‘That was the aim,’ he said, ‘and to get the miles.

‘It probably didn’t look like it on Saturday evening, but as things turned out it proved, you have to do the distance to get there.’

He was eagerly looking forward to his home stage, Sam’s Cross, however, it didn’t go according to plan.

‘The first run was interrupted when Donegal’s David Kelly crashed his Citroen C3 Rally2,’ he said.

‘We were looking forward to the repeat but a puncture cost us about 40 seconds.’

He summed up his outing: ‘Yes, we had a lot of niggling problems, driving errors I suppose really, an overshoot and the puncture of course. I prefer dry conditions, that was the main reason I didn’t compete in Galway, the weather we had on Sunday was probably worse than Galway. 

‘Any year you finish the West Cork is a good one and a top-ten finish is always nice, especially in the conditions.’

McCarthy plans to continue with the IPS Packaging Southern 4 Rally Championship, however, he added: ‘I would also like to tackle a national event as the three-by-three stage format allows you to learn a bit more about the car.