Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy driver Aoife Raftery is already “looking forward to what next year has to bring,” after completing her season with a top-12 finish in Span over the weekend.
Encouraged by her second-place finish in the Rally4 class on her recent Spanish Gravel Rally debut in November, Galway’s Aoife Raftery placed an entry for the all-asphalt Rallye Ciudad de Valencia last weekend.
Driving her PCRS Rallysport-prepared Peugeot 208 Rally4, Raftery and co-driver Hannah McKillop finished an impressive 12th place overall in what was their tarmac rally debut in Spain.
The Galway/Antrim pairing was using the event as an end-of-season test session, trying new approaches and getting further experience of night-time rallying as the event’s opening two stages were run under the cover of darkness.
The final round of the Spanish Tarmac Championship concluded on Saturday after a total of 117 kms on Saturday evening.
“It was great to do another rally in Spain. It was a fantastic event where we focussed on certain aspects to try and improve and build on. We made good progress on learning and developing and if we can carry that into next year it will be nice,” said the Craughwell-based Raftery.
“It has been a fantastic year. It is great to end the year with another strong result. We are really looking forward to what next year has to bring.”
“Thanks to Hannah on the notes, PCRS for looking after the car and the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy for all their help and to all my sponsors.”
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Text by Sean Moriarty
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