Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy member Kyle McBride and co-driver Liam McIntyre took second in the junior rally but went about their business the hard way.
They rolled their Ford Fiesta Rally 4 on the event’s opening stage on Friday night but their service crew worked through the night to get them back out on Saturday morning.
Despite having a severely battered car McBride climbed back up the leaderboard to secure second place courtesy of four fastest class times on day two.
The Irish crews’ Rally 4 rival Australian Max McRae and his Motorsport Ireland-licenced co-driver Mac Kierans were forced to retire on Friday after their Opel Corsa broke a driveshaft and caused further internal gearbox damage.
Johnnie Mulholland and his Rally Academy co-driver Eoin Treacy won the BRC3 section of the event despite it being the Belfast driver’s maiden outing on asphalt in his Fiesta Rally 3.
The Cork and Kerry duo of Keith Cronin and Mikie Galvin are unsure if they will enter next month’s Ypres Rally after finishing second on round two of the British Rally Championship in Scotland on Saturday.
The Jim Clark Rally was won by the World Championship crew of Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria, in the works M-Sport Ford Fiesta, who had 19 seconds to spare over their Irish rivals in the final classification.
Cronin, who is chasing a record-equalling fifth British title, was the top finisher from the strong Irish contingent that tackled the two-day rally in the Duns region.
The British Championship’s next round is an ‘away’ event, the famous Ypres Rally in Belgium, and the host town is located just 30 minutes from Fourmaux’s home.
“We’ll take the year rally by rally, I’m not sure if we’ll go to Ypres yet”, said Cronin. “It’s a long way to travel for us, we might wait for the one after [The Ulster Rally on August 19/20].”
Kyle White and Sean Topping won the Junior BRC element of the rally - his second win of the season. Despite a turbo issue, they managed their overnight lead with a measured drive in their Peugeot 208 Rally 4.
Alan Carmichael and Arthur Kierans (Mac’s father) won the National section in their Hyundai i20 despite some sort of an issue on every stage during the weekend.
Text by: Sean Moriarty. Photos: Jakob Ebrey Photogrpahy / British Rally Championship media office.
Comments