Busy weekend for the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy on and off the Stages
Craig Rahill and Conor Smith were the first Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy crew home in Mayo. Picture by Kevin Shields.
It was a busy weekend for the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy as several members participated in a range of activities centred around the Mayo Rally, the opening round of the Triton Showers Motorsport Ireland National Rally Championship.
Craig Rahill and Conor Smith were the leading Academy crew in the rally. The Ford Fiesta Rally 4 crew enjoyed an event-long battle with former Academy members Dylan Eves and Ryan Farrell. After four stages just 0.9 of a second separated the two crews but Rahill showed his rival a clean pair of heels over the latter part of the rally until disaster struck on the final stage. He suffered a puncture two kilometres from the stage end and dropped a load of time, leading by eight seconds, they eventually finished 3.4 seconds behind Eves to take second in the class in what was his first rally writing his own notes.
County Meath’s Cian Caldwell had Galway-based co-driver Liam Egan in the co-driver's seat and they finished well back the order after a faulty boost pipe caused them to lose valuable minutes on stage three.
Kyle McBride was also in Mayo, he was working with PCRS Rallysport and BD Motorsport and helped Kyle McDaid to the Junior class win. His regular co-driver Liam McIntyre was on pace note duty for Conor Waters and they finished fourth in the hotly contest class 14 in their Ford Escort.
On the eve of the rally, Aoife Raftery and Junior World Rally Champion William Creighton were announced as road safety ambassadors as Motorsport Ireland relaunched its ‘Keep the Race in its Place’ campaign.
“I want to use my passion for Motorsport and my own experience within Rallying and as a driver in the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy to get this safety message out to all drivers and encourage those who have an interest in our sport that there are rules we as rally drivers must obey strictly, and the same respect should be shown to the rules of the road,” said Raftery.
On the day of the rally, Creighton was invited by Motorsport Ireland President Aiden Harper to travel in an event safety car and see firsthand the effort that goes on behind the scenes to keep the rally running. “It was a very interesting day to see how everybody communicates with each other to keep the rally going,” said Creighton.