.jpg)
On a day of slippy and tricky conditions in the West of Ireland, it is Dylan Eves and Jack Harris who will look back most fondly on the Mayo Stages Rally and the second round of the 2024 Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally Series.
Contested on both loose and sealed surfaces across both the Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship and the Triton Nation Rally Championship, the MIJRS is Irelands sole national Dual Surface series designed to develop the brightest young talent in Irish Rallying.
The prizes on offer to competitors in the series are remarkable, with prize packages totalling over €70,000 offered through Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy supports as well as an additional €12,000 prize fund sponsored by Race&Rally for crews competing in Classes 2 & 2A in Stellantis vehicles.
In Class 2, the home of the latest Rally4 machines, it was Dylan Eves who would start the brightest, ending the opening 14.5km Brackwansha test 3.7 seconds quicker than his MIJRS rival Craig Rahill, the pair both in Ford Fiesta Rally4’s. The tricky conditions would immediately start to claim victims, with Casey Jay Coleman retiring on the first stage after colliding with a bale and damaging his car.
While the opening loop belonged to Eves, Craig Rahill went on the attack following the first service halt and would go fastest on Stage 3 & 4 to return to the mid-day service with a slender 0.9 second lead over his Championship Rival. Last year’s winner Cian Caldwell would have a disastrous stage 3 losing nearly 5 minutes to the lead cars and dropping down the order, while Tommy Moffett, starting his very first event on tarmac, would slip off the road and have to rejoin under super rally although would finish the day setting top-3 times within the class.
With Stage 5 cancelled, Eves would claw back the lead on the third running over Ballintober, while sadly Mossie Costello would retire his Ford Fiesta on the stage. Putting in some remarkable times throughout the day was Kalum Graffin, the debut in a Peugeot 208 Rally 4 and a very first event on sealed surface not fazing the youngster and he would finish the day third amongst the MIJRS crews!
And onto the final loop, and after trading tenths all day, the tide looked to swing Rahill’s way as he went 9.6 seconds quicker than Eves on stage 7 to regain the lead, but in a remarkable response Eves would clock a time 11.5 seconds quicker on the final test to claim victory by 3.4 seconds!
In Class 2A, it was two from two this season for Jack Harris, as he repeated his class wining pace from the opening Killarney Forest rally to claim a dominant victory in his Ford Fiesta R2T. Second to Harris was Ciara Duggan who like many others in this yeas MIJRS was enjoying the very first taste of Tarmac Rallying.
The 2024 MIJRS now switches back to gravel, with the next round of the series being the Carrick-on-Suir Willie Loughman Forest Rally on April 14th, which will see all classes including the J1000 field tackle the classic loose surface stages of the South-East.