Report: Ivan Hurley
Monaghan’s Richard Moffett successfully defended his Rose Hotel Kerry Winter Stages Rally crown with a start-to-finish lead on the 2024 edition.
Despite a change in co-driver since his last victory in 2022, Moffett put in a storming performance to blitz the field around him across the day’s six stages.
He led at the opening service halt after the first two runs through Mount Eagle and Headleys Bridge, leading by 6.8 seconds ahead of Jonathan Pringle and Killarney man Conor Murphy was in third.
One of the pre-event favourites, Rob Duggan, was out after the opening stage with brake issues. Also out at the early stages was Ryan Loughran, who blew a prop shaft before the start of stage one but he returned under the super rally for the final four stages.
But stage three was a costly one for the men attempting to take the title from Moffett with both Jonathan Pringle and Conor Murphy retiring from the event at this juncture which took all pressure off the would be champion.
Johno Doogan was promoted to second with Limerick’s Chris O’Callaghan up to third and it was a race on between the pair for the runners-up spot.
Moffett kept his head out front, getting the tyre choice spot on at the service halts and keeping those behind him at bay. He had a 33.6 second lead when he reached the final service of the day at the MTU Kerry North Campus.
The race for second was tight, with Chris O’Callaghan chasing down Doogan, with 4.2 seconds the gap between the pair heading into the final two stages.
Other notable performances up to that point was Vincent O’Shea at fifth overall while Dean Raftery was having a storming run at eighth overall in the Rally 3 spec Ford Fiesta.
But it was Moffett who kept his cool over the final loop. He went 15 seconds faster on the final run over Mount Eagle than he managed on the first stage of the day which set him on the road for victory by 34.9 seconds.
The battle for second rumbled on until the finish line, with Monaghan’s Johno Doogan winning the battle over Limerick’s Chris O’Callaghan by 4.9 seconds.
Donegal’s Donagh Kelly and Rory Kennedy took historic honours on the day, beating their nearest challengers John O’Donnell and Paddy Robinson by 1.2 seconds in their BMW M3.
Meanwhile, to coincide with the Kerry Winter Rallym Motorsport Ireland President Aidan Harper and Rally Academy member Aoife Raftery paid a visit to Munster Technological UniversityTralee on Monday. The weekend event used MTU’s campus as its service park for the first time.
Overall Top 10
1st Richard Moffett/Darragh Kelly
2nd Johno Doogan/Paul Lennon +34.9
3rd Chris O’Callaghan/Dale McGettigan +39.8
4th Michael Carbin/Dean O’Sullivan +01:14.7
5th Vincent O’Shea/Eoin O’Donoghue +01:40.0
6th Patrick McHugh/Pauric O’Donnell +01:42.8
7th Paul Purtill/Paul Kelly +01:49.1
8th Leonard Downey/Mark Murphy +01:51.2
9th Mike Quinn/Kieran Doherty +01:52.1
10th Michael Cahill/Killian McArdle +01:52.3
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