Monaghan man mounts late charge to taste success at 50th anniversary event

Josh Moffett, with Andy Hayes co-driving, chalked up a first ever Modern Tyres Ulster Rally victory to put one hand on the Irish Tarmac Championship with just the Cork ‘20’ remaining.

A regular at the Northern Ireland Motor Club event, Moffett’s maiden victory was achieved by three seconds at the wheel of his Combilift Rallying Toyota Gazoo Racing Yaris Rally2.

Moffett’s move to the top of the timesheets came on the penultimate stage having trailed the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 of Ulster Rally debutant for most of Friday and most of Saturday.

The final podium spot went to Cathan McCourt, who came out the correct side of a titanic battle with Northern Ireland Champion Jonny Greer to make it two Skodas in the top three.

“Credit to both Eddie and Tom [Murphy his co-driver ] – they pushed so hard all weekend and really made it incredibly difficult for us,” reflected Moffett. “The stages were fast and we just had to push ourselves so hard all weekend and, in the end, we finally got the win.

“And from the perspective of the Irish Tarmac Championship, this result is going to make our life a bit easier in Cork, but equally a good result down there is going to be important.”

The rally officially kicked off on Thursday evening with a family friendly opening ceremony at the Ballymena Showgrounds, with representatives from Modern Tyres, and councillors from Mid and East Antrim Borough Council, joined by special guests Josh McErlean – a driver with the M-Sport World Rally Team – and top-flight Toyota WRC navigator, Aaron Johnson.

Run over two days and 12 stages totalling 100 competitive miles, Doherty was quickest out of the traps on Friday as he recorded a clean sweep of scratch times on the opening loop; that was despite his Czech mount being slowed by a suspected pop off valve issue.

Doherty’s early dominance continued after first service in Ballymena – the host town for the 50th running of the Ulster – as he increased his 2.3 second lead to almost 7 seconds.

Behind him Moffett was remaining confident even though his car was struggling to handle the jumpy, bumpy nature of the roads in a way that he would have liked. Cathan McCourt held third overnight having earlier escaped a wild moment that bent the rear steering arm and wheel attached to it, with newly crowned Northern Ireland Champion Greer in fourth.

Saturday’s action was based in and around the mid Antrim area and Doherty said that the stop-start nature of the roads being used would better suit Moffett’s car. By the end of the 6.4-miles of ‘Tardree’, the difference was slashed from 6.8 seconds to just 2.1 by Moffett.

The gap was reduced further on the rerun of ‘Tardree’ to 1.7 seconds by Moffett before he pulled another gear on ‘Cairncastle 2’ to move ahead of Doherty for the first time to the tune of four seconds which became three at the finish line in the Slemish countryside.

Greer and McCourt traded third place twice, before the latter cemented the position with a big push over the closing few miles. Jerseyman Sam Touzel rounded out the top five.

Special K for Eamonn and Rory as Irish team-mates sweep to a historic first in BMW

A round of the FIA European Historic Rally Championship was held in Northern Ireland for the very first time, with Eamonn Kelly and Rory Kennedy the best of them all.

They got the nose of their BMW M3 E30 in front over the opening miles and never looked back even though they picked up a puncture and briefly lost braking power on the Friday. Even so, they still ended the leg over a minute up on the identical car of Welsh visitor Tomas Davies, and a further minute to the good over the Subaru Legacy of Irishman Ray Breen.

It was a largely similar affair on Saturday as Kelly kept his foot on the noisy pedal to add another forty seconds to his buffer over Davies. Whereas first and second place stayed the same, Alan Ring leapfrogged Breen on the antepenultimate stage to steal third.

Elsewhere, Jason Black – in his rear-wheel-drive Toyota Starlet – was the man to beat in the Modified category, Aaron Reid prevailed in the Ulster Junior Rally, and Jamie McLaughlin was the sole finisher in the one-make Nissan Micra Challenge support series.