EXTREMELY wet conditions on Sunday's Mayo Rally, the opening round of the Triton Showers National Rally Championship, proved challenging for the organisers, competitors and spectators.

In the midst of a status yellow weather warning, the ninth and final stage was cancelled due to safety concerns. Many of the top competitors were of the opinion that the event should have been halted after the second loop of three stages with copious amounts of standing water.

At the arrival control prior to the final service, both Ballylickey's Daniel Cronin and Clonakilty's Cal McCarthy had decided to call it a day, a decision that was two-fold – both agreed they had nothing to gain by continuing and they also wanted to preserve their cars for next week's Clonakilty Park West Cork Rally.

At the time, after SS6, they were 13th and 38th respectively, McCarthy dropping 13 places on his final stage as he backed off due to the treacherous conditions.

Cronin, on what was his debut in a new Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, told The Southern Star: ‘There's wasn't too much to learn in those conditions, given it's my first outing in the car. We have work to do on the differential settings so I don't think this (Mayo) is the place to do that; it's so easy to go off. Look, we need the car in one piece for the West Cork and hopefully the conditions will be better.’

McCarthy was equally circumspect.

‘Not a place to be trying to push. I struggled on the first loop, it felt like I had no grip. Conditions deteriorated on the second loop and I had a huge moment on SS6 and that was enough. Look, to be fair, I also had the West Cork (rally) on my mind and that's my priority. That said, it was a challenging day for everyone,’ he said.

Inchigeelagh's Cyril Casey and Clondrohid's Eoghan McCarthy finished sixth in Class 2A and 83rd overall. The Mayo event was Casey's first rally in some 18 months and it marked the return of a partnership after a lapse of almost four years. They plan to contest the Triton Showers national series with the next round, the Nenagh-based Birr Rally, on the final Sunday of March.

In a close finish, the Mayo event was won by the Donegal's David Kelly (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2), who finished a tenth of a second ahead of reigning national champion Kilkenny's Eddie Doherty with Donegal's Matthew Boyle 23.3s further behind to complete a Skoda one-tow-three.