Motorsport: Stafford and Cleary hang on to win in Midleton
Armagh's Jason Black and his Cork based co-driver Karl Egan took second place as they pushed hard on the final stage and while they almost caught Stafford/Cleary, they deprived the Monaghan/Cavan pairing of Johno Doogan/Paul Lennon (Ford Escort) of the runner-up spot by 4.7s.
Doogan led after the opening 15.5km stage where Stafford, who reckoned the dust on the stage was more that he anticipated, took time to get into a rhythm and finished just 1.1s in arrears. Gary Kiernan (Ford Escort) in third struggled with brakes that overheated. Top seed Rob Duggan lost time when he had to reverse after he spun his Escort, he ended the stage down in seventh - 12.7s off the lead.
Stafford set a strong time on the second stage to move into the lead - 5.7s ahead of Doogan, who wasn't committing as it would involve some risk. Kiernan slotted into third but continued to have brake issues. An untroubled Michael Cahill (Escort) was fourth followed by the Toyota Starlet of Armagh's Jason Black and the Escort of Clare's Padraig Egan (Ford Escort).
Although Duggan partially sorted some issues, he withdrew at the Midleton service park leaving Stafford tackle the repeated of both stages as rally leader. The Wexford driver was best on SS3 to move 9s ahead of Doogan while Egan crashed out.
On the fourth stage Black, who struggled on the opening stage, showed a fine turn of speed and topped the time sheets to move up two places to third - a mere 1.1s behind Doogan. Stafford reckoned the dust on SS4 prevented him from posting a better time, nevertheless, he led by 13s.
Kiernan attributed his time loss on SS4 to having stiffened the front of his Escort too much as it was "lifting off the road" on the high speed sections. Cahill in fifth was a little concerned about some differential issues while Peter Wilson, who posted good times on both reckoned his Escort was running a little too hot.
With the brake issues sorted, Moffett was pleased with his performances on both stages, he was seventh in a top ten that also featured Vincent O'Shea (Darrian T90 GTR) and the Escorts of Cian Walsh and Mark Dolphin. Walsh, in the Tom Randles Escort, was happy with his performance while Dolphin was unhappy when he encountered a stricken Escort being removed on SS3.
Protecting his lead position Stafford stretched his advantage to 15.3s on the penultimate stage. Doogan tried a harder compound that took a few kilometres to work properly as Black trimmed the margin between them to 0.9s. Kiernan and Cahill followed with the latter closing to within 5.3s as Kiernan tried some different tyre options. Moffett had a big moment on the stage and decided to call it a day. At the latter end of the top 10 Cian Walsh and Mark Dolphin battled for local bragging rights as the latter cut the deficit to a mere 0.7s.
Stafford arrived at the end of final stage a trifle worried as he reckoned he had backed off too much, to his relief, his victory was confirmed within a few minutes. Elsewhere, Kiernan and first time co-driver Jake O'Sullivan (Escort) managed to fend off Cahill for fourth with Meath's Peter Wilson (Ford Escort) sixth. Kenmare's Vincent O'Shea (Darrian T90 GTR) took a trouble-free drive to seventh as Dolphin reeled in Walsh for eighth and top Cork driver by just 0.2s. Youghal's Jason and Ross Ryan (Toyota Starlet) won Class 11F and the Castlemartyr/Ardfield crew of Darragh Walsh/Gary Lombard (Honda Civic) took the Junior honours.
CDE Imokilly Rally, Midleton: 1. J. Stafford/R. Cleary (Darrian T90 GTR) 41m. 08.2s; 2. J. Black/K. Egan (Toyota Starlet)+4.4s; 3. J. Doogan/P. Lennon (Ford Escort)+9.1s; 4.
G. Kiernan/J. Sullivan (Ford Escort)+38.3s; 5. M. Cahill/C. Smith (Ford Escort)+44.1s; 6. P. Wilson/J. McCarthy (Ford Escort)+1m. 19.2s; 7. V. O'Shea/E. O'Donoghue (Darrian T90 GTR)+1m. 38.6s; 8. M. Dolphin/T. Delaney (Ford Escort)+1m. 55.2s; 9. C. Walsh/D. Doonan (Ford Escort)+1m. 55.9s; 10. D. Hickey/R. O'Riordan (Ford Escort)+2m. 11.5s.
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