Donagh Kelly Wins Quality Hotels West Cork International Rally Four Years In A Row

Donegal driver Donagh Kelly, the former National and Tarmac champion, added to his long list of achievements by becoming the first driver ever to win the Quality Hotels West Cork International Rally four years in a row.

At the finish in Clonakilty yesterday, he and co-driver Conor Foley had almost two minutes to spare over runners up Josh Moffett and James Fulton, who led the R5 challenge to Kelly’s more powerful Ford Focus World Rally Car. The Monaghan-Cavan pair took their Fiesta to maximum points towards the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac title, as WRC cars are no longer eligible for the series.

Donagh Kelly in his Ford Focus World Rally Car

Moffett had a good day yesterday, as he climbed from fourth place at the end of Saturday’s nine stages, to overtake his brother Sam, the runner up on Saturday night. Dubliner Rob Barrable, giving his new Hyundai i20 its Irish debut, held a strong third place after the opening day, but a brake problem forced him to retire with only a couple of stages left to the finish.

Fermanagh’s Alastair Fisher was another to climb the leaderboard, improving from fifth to third yesterday to take the Tarmac title points lead, with Sam Moffett ending the weekend in fourth position after losing several minutes when he was forced to stop on a stage to change a punctured tyre on his Fiesta.

At Mondello Park, Shane McFadden was the runaway winner of the second Fiesta ST race, well clear of a tremendous battle for second place which finally went to Kevin Doran, who finished a tenth of a second in front of Dave Maguire.

The Longford-Monaghan combination of Pakie Duffy and Evin Hughes clinched the National Navigation Trial Championship for the third year in a row, taking second place in the final round at Rockcorry to score a narrow title victory over challengers Derek Mackarel and Muireann Hayes.