THIS weekend's Circuit of Ireland Rally sees Dunmanway's Jason McSweeney make the five-hour journey north to Dungannon in Tyrone as he seeks to retain top spot in the Irish Tarmac Historic Rally Championship, the fourth round of the series.

Having acquired a Ford Escort WRC, category wins in the Galway International Rally and the more recent Clonakilty Park Hotel West Cork Rally has promoted him into a seven-point lead in the series that began with the Killarney Historic Rally last November and is based on the best six results from eight events.

Their principal opposition on the Circuit features reigning ITRC Historic champion Donegal's John O'Donnell (BMW M3) and Waterford's Ray Breen (Subaru Legacy).

Regular co-driver Liam Brennan returns to pacenote duty for the Circuit that consists of four stages this Friday and eight on Saturday, while Liam McCarthy and Kieran Murphy are their gravel note crew.

Last year, McSweeney/Brennan competed in the traditional Easter classic in a Skoda Fabia R5, however several punctures thwarted their progress before they retired with mechanical issues on SS8.

‘We will go up to Dungannon and like a business trip, get the job done and get as many points as possible,’ McSweeney said.

‘There's no doubt that John O'Donnell will be the man to beat – we will probably struggle against him, we know that for starters. It's a case of getting the best result possible, there's no point in throwing it all away.’

Their distinctive Ford Escort WRC is prepared and maintained by TGM (Tom Gahan Motorsport), who have been overhauling the car following their West Cork exploits.

‘The back differential has been done, the back shafts have been replaced and there's been a good bit of re-wiring completed. In the West Cork Rally the back diff cracked the shafts going out into the wheel, so we had no rear wheel drive.’

Meanwhile, in the main field, reigning Irish Tarmac champion Callum Devine has the #140 door decals on the side of his Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 as he seeks back-to-back Circuit victories.

Moira's William Creighton will steer a Citroen C3 Rally2; a former Junior World Rally champion, it's his first outing of the season. The top end is dominated by Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 cars of Eddie Doherty, Michael Boyle, David Kelly, Cathan McCourt and Matthew Boyle.

West Cork Rally winner Josh Moffett and multi Northern Ireland Rally champion Jonny Greer are in Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 cars with Ryan Loughran and Desi Henry onboard Ford Fiesta Rally2 cars.

In the modified category, Barryroe co-driver Dylan Doonan competes with Dungannon's Barry Morris (Darrian T90 GTR) while Macroom's Barry O'Brien and his Rossmore co-driver Declan Buttimer are seeded at No. 93 in their Honda Civic.

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Ballylickey's Daniel Cronin, co-driven Padraig O'Donovan from Ladysbridge, took his Cronin's Centra Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 to a seventh-place finish in last Sunday's Nenagh-based Birr Rally, the second round of the Triton Showers National Rally Championship.

The nine-stage event provided Clonakilty Park Hotel West Cork Rally winner Monaghan's Josh Moffett with his second victory in as many weeks and the first for a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 within the National Rally Championship. He finished 6.2s ahead of Longford's Shane Quinn (Ford Fiesta Rally2) with Donegal's Kevin Eves (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) 9.8s further behind in third.

Eves led initially 2.7s ahead of Tyrone's Jason Dickson (Ford Fiesta Rally2) with Moffett sixth and Cronin ninth. After a cautious start Moffett then moved into second, 0.3s behind Eves with Cronin slipping to tenth.

While Moffett appeared to have gained some nine seconds over the opposition on SS3, the times were amended in the afternoon – four drivers, including Cronin, were all given Moffett's time due to the fact that they were all delayed by Desi Henry, whose Ford Fiesta Rally2 punctured early in the stage, positions as of SS2 pertained.

On a very wet second loop, Moffett moved into the lead on SS4 as a pair of stage wins saw Quinn move into second after SSS6 where he was seven seconds behind Moffett. Cronin was sixth.

The roads dried out for the third and final loop as Moffett extended his lead over Quinn to 8.8s with the latter winning the Power Stage. At the finish, seventh-placed Cronin remarked: ‘I can't figure it out, I thought I did well, but the times just didn't seem to be there. My pace was quicker than the West Cork. I will stick with the national series and see how it goes.’

His brother Robert had good pace as he netted second spot in the Stellantis Rally Cup Ireland series with an untroubled outing.

Elsewhere, Ballylickey's Cyril Casey and his Clondrohid co-driver Eoghan McCarthy, who are contesting the national series, were fifth in Class 2A aboard their SCES supported Ford Fiesta.

Ardfield co-driver Gary Lombard and Waterford's Richie Power (Ford Escort) were second in Class 9; Kealkil co-driver Eoin Collins and his Westmeath driver Patrick Bradley (Honda Civic) were fourth in Class 11F, and Rosscarbery co-driver Jonathan O'Mahony and Millstreet's Sean Moynihan (Ford Escort) were fifth in Class 13.