WHILE GAA fans made the long trip north to Ballybofey on Saturday, motorsport fans from across West Cork are making the even longer journey to Letterkenny for the three-day 20-stage Donegal International Rally that begins on Friday morning (11.16am).

West Cork’s competitive representation is sparse as Dunmanway's Jason McSweeney (Ford Escort WRC) competes in the Historic section where the Clondrohid co-driving brothers Eoghan and Iarla McCarthy are also amongst the entries. Ardfield co-driver Gary Lombard and Ladysbridge driver Darragh Walsh (Honda Civic) are the top seeds in the Junior category.

The event is the fifth round of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship with series leader Callum Devine (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) seeking an unprecedented four-in-a-row in Donegal. Previously, Cathal Curley (1972-1974), Billy Coleman (1984-1986) and the late Manus Kelly (2016-2018) achieved three-in-a-row while Andrew Nesbitt has the most (six) wins.

Devine's opposition is a collective of his ITRC rivals, a WRC event winner and current WRC competitor. Dungannon native Kris Meeke, who has won five WRC events, will drive a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, while Derry's Josh McErlean, who competes in the World Rally Championship with the M-Sport Ford outfit, completes the top three.

Meeke took part in the Toyota Gazoo Racing team's test in Donegal a few weeks ago and is eagerly awaiting putting the Toyota through its paces over the iconic Donegal stages. For McErlean and his Castlemartyr co-driver Eoin Treacy, it will be their first outing in the north-west.

In terms of the ITRC, leader Devine is seven points ahead of Monaghan's Josh Moffett (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) with Kilkenny's Eddie Doherty (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) three points further behind. Donegal driver David Kelly (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) is another three points back in fourth place.

It will be intriguing to see how the ITRC brigade will fare against Meeke and McErlean. The rest of the top ten starters features Welsh driver Meirion Evans (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2), who has finished runner-up to Devine over the last two years, and the Donegal trio of Michael Boyle, Kevin Eves and Declan Boyle, all aboard Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 cars.

Elsewhere, Donegal's Eamonn Kelly (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2), who crashed out of the recent Circuit of Munster, is seeded at number 12. Tyrone's Philip Allen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2), a regular in the European Rally Championship, occupies the number sixteen berth.

Dunmanway's Jason McSweeney (Ford Escort WRC), co-driven by Blackpool's Liam Brennan, makes the journey north as leader of the ITRC Historic category. They are fully aware that securing points is their main target rather than trying to match the challenge of local hero and current champion Donegal's John O'Donnell (BMW M3).

Iarla McCarthy partners UK driver Duncan Williams (Ford Escort RS 1800) and his brother Eoghan calls the pacenotes for another UK driver Alan Watkins (Ford Escort RS 1800).

In the Junior ITRC, Darragh Walsh/Gary Lombard have a four-point advantage over the Donegal crew of Aaron and Caolan Reid, who will be aiming to make most of their local knowledge on the third and final leg. Both are in Honda Civics.

There are six stages on Friday, eight on Saturday and six stages on Sunday with the finish at the Mount Errigal Hotel at 5.23pm.

***

Victory in last Sunday's Halfway Drag Race that was organised and promoted by the West Cork Motor Cycle Club went to Inniscarra's Ted Brady (Suzuki GSXR Turbo 1300).

One of the pre-event favourites, Brady justified the tag as he beat Coachford's Kieran O'Driscoll (Suzuki GSXR 1216cc) in the final shoot-out, stopping the clock on a time of 9.475 seconds for the quarter-mile race.

In the semi-finals, Brady saw off Cork rider Stephen Daly (Suzuki GSXR 1000) as O'Driscoll (Suzuki GSXR 1216cc) got the better of Limerick's Karol Davern (Suzuki GSXR 1300 Turbo).

Earlier in the afternoon, Dunderrow's Stephen Tobin clocked the fastest time of the day, 9.327s.

There were a number of local winners across the various classes, including Ballinhassig's Jake O'Sullivan (Suzuki SV650) in Class B, Lissarda's Adrian O'Driscoll (Kawasaki ZX6R) in Class D, Carrigaline's Trevor Foran (Yamaha R1) in Class F, while Lyre's Donal O'Donovan (Suzuki GSXR750) was third in Class C.