Donegal International Rally 2017
Its been a few weeks and the dust settled on the largest sporting event in Ireland and enough normality has returned to the northwest to reflect on the event.
For 3 days in June, the cream of Ireland's rallying talent brought entertainment and spectacle to the hills of Donegal as the 2017 Joule Donegal International Rally pitted the best cars, drivers and co-drivers this country has to offer against each other on the narrow and challenging tarmac roads in the far Northwest of the country.
The stages in Ireland are unique, unlike the stages you can find anywhere else in the world and Donegal has some of the best of them. Narrow, bumpy, shiney, flowing and technical, the ultimate challenge for both driver and co-driver. Then there is the weather that that affects this part of the country, which only adds to the challenge. Friday and Saturday brought the sunshine and warm roads but the weather changed rapidly on Sunday morning causing the entire field to be caught out on slick tyres for a full loop of 3 sodden stages when the heavens opened.
In my build up to the event (here) I covered the past winners of this prestigious event, but there is talent everywhere throughout the field in Donegal and as the crews crossed the ramp on Letterkenny on Saturday morning and headed towards the first loop of three stages the excitement in the air was palpable.
The Joule Donegal International is the only 3 day event left in Ireland, a country that used to host events like the Circuit of Ireland, which were marathon events covering multiple days. That makes the Joule Donegal International Rally a challenge unlike most others with, 3 full days on competition and 20 competitive stages. Saturday and Sunday are the spectacular days, the days that contain the classic stages that everyone wants to drive and where stories are written …. But to get to Saturday morning there are 6 stages to negotiate on Friday afternoon.
Defending champion Manus Kelly lead the crews into the opening Trentagh stage and after waiting all year to defend his title, came out of the first stage with the second fastest time. Garry Jennings made it to the end of the stage in third position, unlike in 2016 when his engine blew before the end of stage 1. But the fastest team out of the blocks in 2017 were Donagh Kelly and Conor Foley, with the Donegal crew posting the fastest time through the first stage, although it was tight at the top, with only 3 seconds separating the top 3.
Throughout the first loop and over the rest of Friday afternoon the battle raged at the head of the field and as the crews arrived back into Parce Ferme Letterkenny for the overnight halt, Donagh Kelly had slightly extended his lead over Manus Kelly to 12 seconds with Gary Jennings 23 seconds off the lead in 3rd.
In the Irish Tarmac Championship race which is open to R5 specification cars, Alastair Fisher set some blistering times and completed the day ahead of the 2 Moffett brothers holding first place in the R5 battle and 4th overall. The two moffett brothers were battling hard behind Fisher, but at the overnight break, Sam held family honours in the Moffett household over his brother Josh.
In the modified class the lead changed hands more times through Friday than there room in this article to describe every twist and turn of what was an epic battle. To give an indication on just how close the battle of the modifieds was, after 3 stages on Friday, Damien Gallagher lead from Declan Gallagher with Kevin Gallagher in third and Kevin Eves in 4th ....... with only 2.7 seconds separating the 4 drivers.
In the second loop of stages on Friday evening, Kevin Eves woke up and put his right foot to the headlight and had taken his Corolla into first place by the time the teams reached letterkenny. 8 seconds behind Eves was Damien Gallagher in his class 14 Mk2 Escort while Declan Gallagher was 3rd, 14 seconds off the lead in the RWD Starlet.
Saturday is always an epic day in Donegal and 2017 was no different. The crews began the day with a pass through the fast, flowing Garrygort stage which made sure everyone was fully awake for the high speed pass over the famous Knockalla. Donagh Kelly was fastest out of the blocks on Saturday morning, containing where he left off on Friday, and the Focus WRC set fastest times on the opening 4 stages of the day to hold a commanding 20sec lead at the lunchtime service in Milford.
In the battle for the Irish Tarmac Championship, Sam Moffett and Alastair Fisher were involved in a mighty scrap and at Lunchtime service on Saturday, with 10 stages complete, the two R5 Fiestas were separated by only 8 seconds.
The modified battle got off to a rapid start on Saturday morning, with Kevin Eves dropping 2 seconds to Damien Gallagher on the opening Garrygort stage. On Knockalla though, things got a whole lot worse for Eves as he slid his Corolla off the road at the infamous Willhares corner on cold tyres. When a corner has a name in Donegal, it has either ended the rally of a great or has been the scene of a big accident and Willhares has seen both.
Eves’ retirement opened up the front of the modified battle and the pace on Saturday morning was astonishing. There might be a steward’s enquiry into what Kevin Gallagher had for breakfast on Saturday morning as his unique Darrian shot up the leaderboard from 4th to 1st in the opening 4 stages to leave the little blue Darrian with a 5 second lead at lunchtime service. Damien Gallagher was hot on his heels in 2nd, with two time modified champion Gary McPhillips in third.
Four more stages awaited the crews on Saturday afternoon, two passes over Carnhill and twice over the fast flowing Gartan Lake stage. Last year Manus Kelly had an incident on the first stage after lunch and put in some unbelievable times for the remainder of the rally to take the victory …. And Manus started off in a similar fashion this year (without the detour through the field). The defending champion set a blistering pace through the afternoon, closing the gap to Donagh Kelly to only 7 seconds at the end of the day. The race at the head of the field was well set up for Sunday as the 2 native Donegal men would take to the stages to try and claim the most prestigious victory in Irish rallying.
In the Irish Tarmac Championship battle, Alastair Fisher again kept up his relentless pace, extending his lead by 2 seconds over the afternoon loop of four stages. Fisher would end the day 10 seconds ahead of Sam Moffett, with Josh Moffett in third.
In the modifieds, there was a savage battle raging all afternoon. The pace of the leaders was breathtaking and the modified men treated the spectators on the ditches to a fantastic show. The top two cars of Kevin Gallagher and Damien Gallagher finished the first two days of the rally in first and second place but there was very little separating the two Donegal drivers. After two days of intense rallying, 14 flat out stages and driving two remarkably different cars, the Darrian and the Escort were separated by only 0.6 of a second.
Sunday brought slightly more overcast weather but it also brought the Fanad Head, High Glen and Atlantic Drive stages. Classic Sunday stages to close out the rally.
As the crews left service on Sunday morning the road was dry and the sun was out ….. but by the time they Approached the start line on Fanad, the road was sodden, with rain falling heavily on all 3 stages of the loop. Slick tyres on wet tar was a tough start to the day.
On the first 2 stages, Manus Kelly attacked the lead of Donagh Kelly reducing it to less than 2 seconds before Donagh responded on the slightly drier High Glen stage to come into midday service with a lead of 4.7 seconds. It would all come down to the final loop.
In the Irish Tarmac Championship battle, the battle between Alastair Fisher and Sam Moffett was brutal, until Sam had a massive moment at the top of High Glen when his Fiesta clipped a bank which pitched the R5 Fiesta onto 2 wheels for what seemed like an eternity. After that scare, Sam settled for second place and the Championship points that come with it. The final Irish Tarmac Championship podium position was taken by Josh Moffett.
After 4 rounds of the Clonakilty Irish Tarmac Championship the leaderboard looks like this:
1 Sam Moffett 57
2 Alastair Fisher 49.5
5 Josh Moffett 37
3 Joseph McGonigle 27
4 Robert Barrable 26
6 Stephen Wright 22
On the opening stage on Sunday, everything changed at the front of the modified battle. Kevin Gallagher slid his Darrian off the road from first position with slicks on the Darrian not the ideal choice on the greasy tarmac. That promoted Damien Gallagher into first place with Declan Gallagher in third in the RWD Starlet. Ryan Loughran moved into third position.
And that is how they finished. After a marathon 3 days in RWD rally cars with insane power, Damien Gallagher took the Modified title on his home rally in his rapid Mk2 Escort.
After 4 rounds of the Irish Tarmac Championship the Modified Table looks like this:
1 Kevin Eves(14) 46
2 Eugene Meegan(14) 39.5
3 Viv Hamill(14) 32
4 John Devlin(13) 30
5 John Bonner(13) 26
Back to the action at the front of the field. Going into the final 3 stages it was all to play for between Donagh and Manus Kelly. Manus’ favourite stage is Fanad Head, and he set a blistering time over the stage to win the rally last year. This year Fanad was the first stage of the loop and was being run in reverse …. But that didn’t deter Manus Kelly and he landed a hammer blow on the stage by setting the fastest time to move into the lead of the rally by 12 seconds. The battle was truly on.
As Donagh Kelly entered the second last stage he was visibly pushing until disaster struck, the Focus WRC slid wide, hit a bank and rolled. The crew lost nearly a minute in the stage and had to retire at the end due to the damage caused. Donagh’s misfortune was testament to the pace being set at the front of the field where the 2 Donegal men were leaving nothing on the stages, however Donagh’s demise left the door open for Manus Kelly and Donall Barrett to take a leisurely drive over the final stage of the rally and arrive back into Letterkenny as the rally winner for the second year in succession.
It is a fantastic achievement for the Glenswilly pair who have now won the modified category in 2015, and won the rally outright in 2016 and 2017.
So that is it over for another year, the Jim Kennedy trophy remains in Donegal for another year and everyone settles down for a while ….. until we all return to do it all again in 12 months time.
I'm looking forward to it already.
