Title Chasing Devine Heads Up Ulster Rally Entry
Callum Devine and his co-driving team-mate Noel O’Sullivan will have the honour of leading away the 100-plus-strong field at the 47th Modern Tyres Ulster Rally in Newry next weekend.
In their Michelin-shod Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 car, the Irish duo will be the first to sample the revised 2024 route at competitive speeds. In all, competitors can look forward to a total of ten closed-road special stages on Saturday, August 17, with these totalling over eighty miles.
The top 10 spots are dominated by the very latest Rally2 cars, with Devine’s Irish Tarmac Rally Championship title rivals Matt Edwards (M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2), Keith Cronin (M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2) and Josh Moffett (Citroen Racing C3 Rally2) seeded at two, three and four.
After five rounds of the cross-border series, 2016 Tarmac champion Keith Cronin is currently leading the way on 73 points courtesy of victories in Galway and West Cork with Mikie Galvin.
However, success for Welshman Matt Edwards on Easter’s Circuit of Ireland, and consecutive wins for County Londonderry’s Callum Devine, have propelled them into the title mix as well.
Indeed, there is real strength in depth down the field, with the fiercely competitive modified class bringing the Ford Escort Mk2s of Frank Kelly, Damian Toner, Camillus Bradley, Oli Benton and John Devlin up against Jason Black’s rapid, rear-wheel-drive Toyota Starlet. Fans can also look forward to seeing Adrian Hetherington’s immaculately restored Fiat 131 Abarth going up against the clock at the Northern Ireland Motor Club Limited meeting.
In the Rally4 category for front-wheel-drive machines, Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy-backed starlet Aoife Raftery (Peugeot 208) is set to trade stage times with Joseph Kelly, Jack Brennan and Se Og Martin who have all entered in the same French-developed supermini.
The action begins on Saturday morning with an opening loop of two stages comprising ‘Shinn Bridge 1’ and ‘Banbridge North 1’ before cars return to Newry for service at Modern Tyres’ Carnbane Industrial Estate headquarters. After the second loop of three tests, crews will again make their way back to service, with a regroup planned in-between stages six and seven – ‘Shinn Bridge 2’ and ‘Banbridge North 2’ – at Banbridge Civic Building on the Downshire Road from 2pm. Here, rally goers can see the cars up close and meet the crews. The third and final loop will comprise timed runs over ‘Kilrea Hill 2’, ‘Tyrone’s Ditches 2’ and ‘Babylon Hill 2’ before the winners cross the finish ramp at 5.30pm in Newry.
Clerk of the Course Wayne Turkington said: “We are absolutely delighted with the entry for the 47th running of the Modern Tyres Ulster Rally. The top 10 starters alone is good enough to grace any international rally, with all the main Rally2 manufacturers set to be represented.
“There promises to be exciting and unpredictable battles played out across all the different classes at this year’s event, which I believe has all the ingredients required to make it one of the very best in recent times. Whoever comes out on top will have definitely had to earn it.”
Further information on spectator viewing points, as well as a time and distance schedule and full seeded entry list for the Modern Tyres Ulster Rally, is now available from the official event website (www.ulsterrally.com) or via the free-to-download Sportity smartphone app where users should enter the password UR2024.
Modern Tyres Ulster Rally – Top 10 Seeds
1 Callum Devine / Noel O’Sullivan (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2).
2 Matt Edwards / David Moynihan (Ford Fiesta Rally2).
3 Keith Cronin / Mikie Galvin (Ford Fiesta Rally2).
4 Josh Moffett / Andy Hayes (Citroen C3 Rally2).
5 Eddie Doherty / Tom Murphy (Skoda Fabia Rally2).
6 David Kelly / Dean O’Sullivan (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5).
7 John MacCrone / Kirsty Riddick (Ford Fiesta Rally2).
8 James Ford Neil / Shanks (Citroen C3 Rally2).
9 Andrew Purcell / Liam Brennan (Volkswagen Polo GTI R5).
10 Cal McCarthy / Eric Calnan (Citroen C3 Rally2).
The 2024 event can be followed via the Ulster Rally website (www.ulsterrally.com), as well as the official Facebook account (www.facebook.com/ulsterrally)