Westport’s David Carney along with his navigator Ray Fitzpatrick made a dream start to the 2014 MSA British Rally Championships by finishing third overall on the two day, ten stage, Pirelli Carlisle ‘Richard Burns Foundation’ Rally over the weekend.

Still learning his recently acquired Citroen DS3 as the event progressed and benefiting from staying out of trouble as others around succumbed to the tricky all gravel stages, the pair were delighted to be part of what finished an all Citroen DS3 podium, with Welsh driver Osian Pyrce taking the top spot ahead of Daniel McKenna from Monaghan who is the current holder of the Billy Coleman Award, and the winner of the 2013 Pirelli Star Driver competition.

Speaking afterwards the always smiling Carney said “We are very happy, everything went better than planned. We came here using the rally as a shakedown for the car and to get on the podium is a great feeling”.

Round two of the British Rally Championships is The Jim Clark Rally which is based in Kelso, in four weeks time.

Also on duty, outside of Ireland this weekend was John Higgins from Kiltimagh who was navigating at Rally Jordan, an event that last year seen him make headlines when the car he was competing in then, alongside United Arab Emirates driver, Majed al-Shamsi, slid off a cliff face and fell over 20ft into a ravine.

Undaunted by last year’s events, this year the Mayo man was calling the pacenotes for Emariti driver, Juma Al Falasi. They put in a solid performance over the three day event, which took place alongside the picturesque backdrop of the Dead Sea, and after the twenty one special stages ran mostly over desert terrain, the Abu Dhabi Junior Racing backed pair finished the event in 14th place overall in their 2wd Citroen DS3 R3.

Closer to home this weekend, at the Killarney International Rally of the Lakes, two teams were flying the Mayo flag. Shane Buckley from Ballyhaunis had Westport’s Keefe Kilcoyne alongside on the notes but the pair didn’t make it to the finish, retiring their Honda Civic half way through the second day of the event.

Faring much better was Aaron MacHale who had Martin Brady in the navigators seat, the pair brought their Supermac’s backed Mitsubishi Lancer home in eight place overall.