Masterful Josh Moffett is golden wonder at Modern Tyres Ulster Rally
Josh Moffett, with Andy Hayes co-driving, chalked up a first ever Modern Tyres Ulster Rally victory to put one hand on the Irish Tarmac Championship with just the Cork ‘20’ remaining.
Moffett’s maiden victory was achieved by three seconds at the wheel of his Combilift Rallying Toyota Gazoo Racing Yaris Rally2.
Moffett’s move to the top of the timesheets came on the penultimate stage having trailed the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 of Ulster Rally debutant for most of Friday and most of Saturday.
The final podium spot went to Cathan McCourt, who came out the correct side of a titanic battle with Northern Ireland champion Jonny Greer.
“Credit to both Eddie and Tom [Murphy his co-driver ] – they pushed so hard all weekend and really made it incredibly difficult for us,” reflected Moffett. “The stages were fast and we just had to push ourselves so hard all weekend and, in the end, we finally got the win.
“And from the perspective of the Irish Tarmac Championship, this result is going to make our life a bit easier in Cork, but equally a good result down there is going to be important.”
Run over two days and 12 stages totalling 100 miles, Doherty was quickest out of the traps on Friday as he recorded a clean sweep of scratch times on the opening loop; that was despite his Czech mount being slowed by a suspected pop off valve issue.
Doherty’s early dominance continued after first service in Ballymena – the host town for the 50th running of the Ulster – as he increased his 2.3 second lead to almost 7 seconds.
Saturday’s action was based in and around the mid Antrim area and Doherty said that the stop-start nature of the roads being used would better suit Moffett’s car. By the end of the 6.4-miles of ‘Tardree’, the difference was slashed from 6.8 seconds to just 2.1 by Moffett.
The gap was reduced further on the rerun of ‘Tardree’ to 1.7 seconds by Moffett before he pulled another gear on ‘Cairncastle 2’ to move ahead of Doherty for the first time to the tune of four seconds which became three at the finish line in the Slemish countryside.
Greer and McCourt traded third place twice, before the latter cemented the position with a big push over the closing miles, with Sam Touzel rounding out the top five.