CLONAKILTY’S Cal McCarthy (Citroen C3 Rally2) secured his first-ever rally podium finish with third place in Saturday’s R Kings Competitions Down Rally, the final round of the Northern Ireland Rally Championship. 

The event was won by Welsh driver Osian Pryce (Toyota Yaris GR Rally2), who finished 35.4 seconds ahead of the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 of Omagh's Jason Dickson (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2).  

McCarthy, in the Clonakilty Park Hotel/Carbery Plastics backed Citroen, held off the challenge of experienced Welsh driver Jason Pritchard (Citroen C3 Rally2) to take third.

Former winner and top seed Cathan McCourt (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) was a non-starter, leaving Welsh driver Meirion Evans (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) as first car on the road. Unfortunately, he was the first casualty when he crashed out on what was a very gravelly first stage. Pryce was the early leader, 5.3 seconds ahead of Dickson with Omagh’s Alan Smyth (VW Polo GTi R5) 12.1s further behind and 6.2s in front of McCarthy.

Pryce struggled to get into a rhythm and Dickson, who set the best times on SS2 and SS3, moved into the lead, 3.4 seconds in front of Pryce, as McCarthy moved into third. Smyth slid off the road on SS2.

The second run over Thornhill (SS4) was cancelled as Pryce set the pace on SS5 and SS6 to regain the lead. Dickson overshot a junction on SS5 and near the finish, his Skoda collected a front right wheel puncture. He retained second as McCarthy continued his good form in third and led Pritchard by 22.5 seconds. 

Keen to secure a long-awaited podium, McCarthy dropped 7.4 seconds to Pritchard on the penultimate stage to leave the margin between them at 15.1 seconds. However, the Clonakilty driver upped his pace and only lost 0.3s on the final stage. 

‘It was great to get on the podium ahead of Jason Pritchard, especially after losing out to him by 0.7s in the Manx Rally. It wasn’t easy either as he is a top-level British championship driver,’ McCarthy said.

‘Everything went fine with the car, we had no issues from start to finish.’

McCarthy's Citroen was overseen by DGM (David Greer Motorsport) and he was co-driven by Sligo's Niall Burns – Jonny Greer's regular co-driver. 

'Jonny did gravel notes for us, I learnt a lot. It was a positive experience of competing at the top level.' 

Burns is one of the most experienced co-drivers on the rallying scene and McCarthy was the 60th driver he had guided along the way.  McCarthy added that such a level of experience was hard to find. 

While the Banbridge-based event was meant to be his final rally of the year he added: ‘Yes, before the event that was the plan but the podium finish changed a few things. While I will miss the Cork ‘20’, the Donegal Harvest Rally and the re-scheduled Tipperary Stonethrowers Rally are possibilities.’

Elsewhere, Daniel Cronin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) finished fifth in the Galway Summer Rally as rally winner Josh Moffett, also in a Toyota, clinched a fifth national title. In Class 2A, Bandon’s Daniel Seaman was sixth, Clonakilty's Fred Kelleher and Rathbarry's Joseph O'Sullivan and Ballylickey's Cyril Casey with Clondrohid’s Eoghan McCarthy were eighth and 14th respectively, all in Ford Fiesta R2s.