IT was a case of a north-west one-two at the Jim Walsh Cork Forest Rally last week.
Omagh’s Cathan McCourt and Fermanagh navigator Barry McNulty won by 1.8 seconds in their Skoda Fabia RS Rally 2, ahead of Strabane’s Jason Mitchell and Donegal Town’s Paddy McCrudden in a similar car.
It’s been a good few months for McCourt and McNulty who recently won the Down Rally.
For this, their first gravel rally of the year aboard their Skoda Fabia Rally 2, McCourt and McNulty were seeded second.
Stage one saw the crew go fastest by one second from Jason Mitchell in a similar Skoda, despite a spin in the testing fog.
Shane McGirr in the Lada went quickest in the two-wheel drive section by 0.3 seconds ahead of Dave Condell with Enniskillen’s Eugene Donnelly on the notes.
Dominic Leonard from Belcoo had a good run to take 19th on the leaderboard as the sole entrant in Class 15.
With Special Stage 2 cancelled for all crews due to a technical issue, the crowds headed for Stage 3 before service.
Jason Mitchell took the lead, going 2.1 seconds quicker than the McCourty-McNulty pairing, to lead by 1.1 seconds at first service.
McGirr and Denver Rafferty took 2.6 seconds out of Condell and Donnelly to lead the two-wheel drive by 2.9 seconds.
Belleek’s Damien McGauran sat 14th in two-wheel drive and fourth in class, with Leonard continuing in 19th.
Mitchell then extended his lead to 1.4 seconds and McGirr his to 4.7.
But McCourty took 2.8 out of Mitchell in the next stage to jump into a 1.4 seconds lead, while McGirr retired on SS5 to gift Condell/Donnelly a 17.5 second advantage.
On stage 6, Mitchell took 0.8 from McCourt to again have eyes on the overall championship. Meanwhile, Condell and Donnelly had the second quickest 2wd time with gear box problems starting to bite in the escort.
After service the crews headed to SS7 with McCourt and McNulty taking another stage win by 4.5 seconds over Jason Mitchell and Paddy McCrudden to hold a 5.1 second lead going into the days final stage.
Condell and Donnelly held a 14.4 seconds two-wheel drive lead.
The final stage had the last drama with McCourt and McNulty having a big moment and lost time as Mitchell and McCrudden took the fastest time by 3.3 seconds – but that wasn’t quite enough as McCouty and McNulty clung on to a slender 1.8 second victory.
Condell and Donnelly took the two-wheel drive win by 16.4 seconds over Sam Stewart. Dominic Leonard in the Mitsubishi Evo took Class 15 with Damien McGauran finishing fourth in Class 13.
There’s the ALMC rally this Sunday, but otherwise all roads now lead to Enniskillen Motorclubs Lakeland Stages Rally on September 4.