Report by Ivan Hurley
The Tyrone pairing of Mark Donnelly and Stephen O’Hanlon took the top step of the podium as they guided their Ford Fiesta R5 home to victory on the Sligo Pallets Irish Forestry Championship opener in Killarney on Sunday last, Feb 19th.
The Killarney and District Motor Club ran Killarney Forestry Rally, which was based out of Castleisland and took place in glorious springtime conditions as it returned to the motorsport calendar. The rally was run in support of the Irish Community Air Ambulance with all profits made from the running of the event donated to a very worthy cause which has huge sentimental value to the club and the rally community.
Donnelly didn’t have it his own way all day though, having to settle for third on the rally’s opening stage Mullaghareirk just outside the townland of Rockchapel in the Coiltte forests. UK-based Vivian Hamill and Andrew Grennan set the early pace with Ryan Caldwell in the Skoda Fabia R5 on his tail just 1.6 seconds off the pace. Donnelly sat in third, 4 seconds shy of Hamill’s blistering stage-winning time.
As the crews moved back towards Castleisland, Hamill remained in control with another stage-winning time on the short Forehane stage. Donnelly started to find his groove and a 5:02.1 time meant he robbed Caldwell of second position and cut the gap to the top to 4.2 seconds. Cavan man Stephen McCann was in fourth, some 8 seconds off the pace.
Donnelly was on top song and set a huge time on the final stage before midday service, beating all his rivals by over ten seconds over the fabulous terrain of the Mount Eagle stage. Donnelly drove into Castleisland with a lead of over 8 seconds to Caldwell in third, Hamill dropped to third and over 10 seconds off the rally lead.
And the top position was where Donnelly was to stay. The Tyrone man took the stage win on stage 4 by over a second. Although McCann won stage 5, Donnelly still managed to eke time off his nearest challengers and lead by over 10 seconds heading into the rally's final stage, a second running over Mount Eagle. Issues hampered Hamill on stage 5 which upgraded the advancing Niall McCullagh and Ryan McCloskey to 3rd overall before the final test, ahead of Stephen McCann.
But a 6:55.3 over the final stage was enough for Donnelly to secure the win by 10.9 seconds over Ryan Caldwell and Arthur Kierans. A stage-winning time by Stephen McCann and Tommy Hayes on stage 6 meant they leapfrogged McCullagh into 3rd position by some 8 seconds in the end.
It was an event which had 3 rally’s in one with the 4 Wheel drive crews taking the overall rally win but there were 2 rally’s to win, in the 2 wheel drive and J1000 series as well.
The 2WD category went to Tyrone’s Hugh McDaid and Cork co-driver Declan Casey, who has strong Kerry connections on the border with the county in Rathmore. A great victory for the pair, who found themselves in 6th place after the opening stage. They dropped to 7th after the second stage but a huge stage-winning time in Mount Eagle meant they hit the midpoint in second place. They took 14 seconds off the leader Michael Conlon in SS4 and gained the lead of the event where they remained until the finish. They took the rally win from Michael Conlon by 9.4 seconds with Donegal man Kyle McBride rounding out the podium places.
The J1000 win went to another driver with Kerry connections in Wexford man Jack Kennedy and Colm O’Toole in the Volkswagen Up. The J1000 series is an excellent breeding ground for up-and-coming crews, with some drivers as young as 15 years old having to swap the driver's seat for the navigator seat during road sections between the stages. It was a huge win for Kennedy, who won the rally on the very last stage, taking 1.9 seconds off his nearest challenger Tommy Moffett to win by just 0.5 seconds. Cork man Ross Ryan and co-driver Peter Keohane came home in third place.
Tyrone's Hugh McDaid and Cork navigator Declan Casey navigating their way to the 2 Wheel Drive victory, pictured here on the flowing Mount Eagle stage in the Ford Escort Mark II
Photo credits to Gavin Woods
