A NEW season of the Triton Showers National Rally Championship got underway in thrilling circumstances with the Midland Rally on Sunday, as Ireland's WRC crew of Derry's Josh McErlean (Ford Fiesta Rally2) and his Killeagh co-driver Eoin Treacy took victory by just half a second from the all-Welsh crew of Matt Edwards/Sion Williams (Hyundai i20 Rally2).
The local crew of Ballylickey's Daniel Cronin and his Dunmanway co-driver Donnchadh Burke debuted their new Citroen C3 Rally2 and finished tenth overall while Clonakilty's David Guest (Ford Fiesta Rally2) and his Donegal co-driver Paddy Robinson finished 32nd in general classification.
In terms of the Triton series, defending national champions Monaghan's Josh Moffett (Citroen C3 Rally2) and Limerick's Keith Moriarty, who finished third overall, 43.2 seconds behind Edwards, netted the top points (20), ahead of Derry's Desi Henry (18 points) and Kilkenny's Eddie Doherty (Skoda Fabia R5) who picked up an additional for fastest time on the ‘Power Stage’ to garner 17 points. Cronin was eighth of the championship finishers and claimed ten points.
Elsewhere, Barryroe co-driver Dylan Doonan and his Tyrone driver Barry Morris (Darrian T90 GTR) finished second in Class 14 and Ballylickey's Robert Cronin (Opel Corsa Rally4) was eighth in Class 2 and 80th in general classification.
The opening stage near Drumlish provided the template for the main battle with just 1.2 seconds between McErlean and Edwards, as both commented on the greasy nature of the stage. Former national champion Declan Boyle (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) was next, 3.8 seconds further behind, followed by Josh Moffett, Longford driver Shane Quinn (Ford Fiesta Rally2) and Cronin, who was only 3.2 seconds off Moffett's third place. Cronin remarked, 'I was well rusty.'
McErlean was also quickest on SS2, extending his advantage over Edwards to 3.2 seconds. Cronin remained in sixth, 7.8 seconds behind Boyle, who remained third.
On the final and longest stage of the loop (14.7km) Edwards set the pace and cut McErlean's lead to 1.2 seconds. There was a good deal of change behind as Josh Moffett moved into third (17.7 seconds behind Edwards) to lead the national championship contenders. Quinn remained in fourth as Cronin dropped two places to eighth. At the Longford service he said, ‘We picked a soft compound tyre and it was going off towards the end of SS3.’ On his new Citroen he added, ‘There's good torque and the brakes are really good, we will make a few slight changes for the next loop.’
That second loop saw the intensity for supremacy increase with Edwards posting the top stage times on SS4 and SS5 to move into a 4.4 second lead. However, McErlean, still stymied by a handbrake issue, cut the deficit to a mere second after a strong performance through SS6.
Meanwhile, Moffett continued as the leading national series contender as Cronin lost another place on the top ten leaderboard to an improving Sam Moffett (Hyundai i20 N Rally2), who contributed his move from 12th to eighth to a good tyre choice. At the final service Cronin remarked, ‘It's very muddy and slippery. We are trying different things, I am struggling a little bit, it's trying to put it all together.’
Quinn retired his Ford Fiesta Rally2 with an engine problem, Tommy Doyle (Hyundai i20 N Rally2) withdrew for personal reasons and Dubliner Robert Barrable (Ford Fiesta Rally2) haemorrhaged time with turbo problems.
Edwards was best on SS7 to move 1.5 seconds in front, however, on the penultimate stage McErlean moved to within 0.3 of a second to set up a final stage thriller where he pushed hard to secure victory by just 0.5 of a second.
Edwards was delighted with the performance of his new Hyundai: ‘This was a great shakedown for the West Cork. Josh (McErlean) was a great benchmark but we will have Keith Cronin in West Cork.’
Moffett took the top Triton points while Cronin came home in tenth position and was third in the Race and Rally Citroen C3 2 Series.
‘We learned a lot really, it started off very well but we went the wrong way with settings for the second loop and we had a spin on stage seven during the final loop,’ Cronin said.
‘A rigid car when it's on the mud can take off very quickly, when there is more of a lean to it, it's very gentle. We will do West Cork and that will give us a chance to perfect the set-up. There is nothing like a rally to do a proper test.
‘I spun on the seventh stage and that annoyed me and then I crawled through the last stage and when I looked at the time, it was fourth fastest of the championship competitors.'
Guest, with a trouble free event, achieved his goal in getting an event under his belt before next week.
'This was my first tarmac rally since the Circuit of Munster last June and I really needed the seat time for the West Cork Rally. This was all about getting to the finish, rather than a result,’ he said.
Robert Cronin, on what was his first tarmac event in a Rally4 car, contested the event as part of the eight round Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally Series that also includes the Circuit of Kerry (March 30th), the Cork Forest Rally (August 10th) and the Fastnet Rally (October 26th).
