John Warren and Ruthann O Connor excelled in Kerry on Sunday as they overcame tricky conditions to bring the McHale Fusion Rally2 Fiesta home in 7th place in Class 5 and 13th Overall against an impressive entry list of over 150 cars.
To add a further dimension to the day, thick mist and fog descended on the Dingle Peninsula region, where the 9 Stage Rally was based making the already difficult stages an altogether tougher proposition. Setting the pace in the opening loop, Warren showed no sign of needing to bed into his new McHale Fiesta Rally2, which he was using for just the second time after his recent debut at Longford Stages Rally a couple of weeks ago.
The husband and wife team continued to learn the car and build on times over the next two loops of stages to finish well ahead of some seasoned Rally2 drivers in the overall results of this the second round of the Motorsport Ireland Triton Showers National Rally Championships.
Speaking after the event, Warren, a design engineer with McHale Engineering based in Ballinrobe said “Yes we’re very happy with how the day went, there is a lot to learn about the car and I’m very happy with how we performed over a very tricky loop of stages made even more difficult with the changing weather conditions”. Co-driver Ruthann added “John really got to grips with the car and even things like adapting to sitting on the other side of the car, as the car is left hand drive is coming second nature to him at an early stage in the learning process!”
The event was won by Kilkenny’s Eddie Doherty driving a Skoda Fabia R5, he finished ahead of the Skoda Fabia Rally2 of Dublin driver Robert Barrable with Monaghan’s Sam Moffett finishing third.
To Keep up to date with the McHale Rally Team and check out some amazing footage from the weekend follow ‘McHale Rallying’ on TikTok
