The National Rally Championship heads into its halfway point on this weekend’s Ravens Rock Rally with Josh Moffett, Sam Moffett, and Eddie Doherty all vying for the title.
The Waterford-based event features three unique asphalt stages completed three times; check out Onthepacenote’s stage analysis at the end of our preview.
Defending a dominant 2023 Ravens Rock Rally victory, Josh Moffett and Keith Moriarty are top seeds for Sunday’s highly anticipated event. Moffett has found renewed form following a return to his old faithful – the Hyundai i20 R5. His Cavan Stages Rally victory in May gave him a second top points score in this year’s National Rally Championship, putting him in a strong position as he challenges for his fifth National title.
Circuit of Kerry Rally winners Eddie Doherty and Tom Murphy are seeded second in their Skoda Fabia Rally2, while Desi Henry and Dean O’Sullivan complete the top three in the fast-looking Ford Fiesta Rally2.
Further rally-winning hopefuls feature throughout the top ten, including championship contender Sam Moffett, family rivals Declan and Michael Boyle, and 2024 title protagonist Daniel Cronin.
Leading Ravens Rock’s two-wheel-drive entry is the Darrian T90 of James Stafford and Richard Cleary. Stafford is as quick as they come but will be hoping to end a non-finishing streak that dates back to 2022, where he narrowly missed out on an overall Wexford Stages Rally victory.
Johno Doogan, Barry Morris, and Chris Armstrong continue their Class 14 rivalry in Ravens Rock. Morris holds a seven-point lead over Armstrong thanks to a class win and two runner-up finishes so far this year.
Neil Williams and Adrian Evans will go wheel-to-wheel in the Historic category while Cian Caldwell, Jack Brennan, Tommy Moffett, and Oran England lead a strong pack of Rally4 hopefuls.
Kilmacow (11.6 km) – SS1/4/7
Ravens Rock will open its proceedings with a flowing Kilmacow stage.
The 11.6-kilometre stage will be a proper test of confidence early doors, with overgrown banks and hedges hiding views towards the upcoming corners.
Drivers will really have to trust their pacenotes and their co-drivers’ delivery. To complete the challenge, Kilmacow features a few traps where a fast section ends with a tight, slow corner.
Harristown (6.4 km) – SS2/5/8
The shortest stage of the rally, Harristown, is a bit more straightforward, but still, both sides of the roads are quite overgrown.
There are a few sequences of corners where crews will have to be at their best, along with a few more gravelly junctions.
Tory Hill (18.2 km) – SS3/6/9
Tory Hill is a cracking stage to end the Ravens Rock Rally on. At 18.2 kilometres, it is the longest of the day and offers everything in terms of stage characteristics.
The stage flows from narrow sections to wide sections and then back into narrow sections. There is so much work in the stage in general.
Parts of Tory Hill run under trees, with another tricky section two kilometres into the stage.
What a way to cap off round four of the National Rally Championship.
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Photo by Gavin Woods
