Mayo's Warren shows wet weather expertise in Wexford
JOHN Warren was celebrating again at the Wexford Stages Rally at the weekend. Warren, with Ruthann O’Connor on the notes, won Class 13 after a pulsating two days rallying.
The husband and wife team, in their McHale Engineering-backed Toyota Corolla, took control of the very competitive class midway through a sun-kissed first day of rallying in the sunny south east, despite a problem developing which seen the engine in their Green Fusion machine, consuming water.
Ironically, torrential rain on day two, which turned the event on its head, made Warren’s day more complicated as he kept checking and topping up the water level in his Toyota between stages.
A close class battle with local Wexford driver Leon Galvin in his Ford Escort meant that Warren and O'Connor couldn’t afford to drop concentration in what now had become the soaking south east. At the end of the 18-stage event, which saw 140 cars race over 230km of specially set up stages, the south Mayo crew displayed their exceptional driving ability by not only taking the class honours but finishing in 11th place overall, just outside a top 10 that included former World Rally Championship star Mikko Hirvonen from Finland.
The Wexford duo of Andrew Purcell and Andy Hayes, in a Skodia Fabia R5, were the overall winners of the event after the torrential rain on Sunday swayed the advantage to the four-wheel drive cars, over another local Wexford crew, James Stafford and Thomas Scallon, who had dominated proceedings on Saturday in their two-wheel-drive Darrian T90.
"It was nice to get such a great result so far away from home," said a jubilant Warren at the finish ramp in Wexford town.
"It was an extremely demanding event for us, not only with the monsoon-like conditions on the final day but add to that dealing with our engine issue," added Ruthann.
She continued: "John, as always, drove a fantastic event and managed the car well over the two-day event on what was only our second time competing in Wexford."
The pair also added their thanks to Wexford Motor Club, who laid on such a fantastic competitor-friendly event, and to the large number of marshals who stood out and braved the awful conditions on Sunday to see the smooth running of the event.