Oran England and Darragh Mullen grabbed a 19.7-second Class 2 victory at round two of the MIJRS after Ben McFall’s penultimate stage puncture ended a nail-biting battle. The Peugeot 208 Rally4 crew secured top MIJRS points as well as maximum Stellantis Rally Cup points after a strong performance on the Birr Stages Rally.
Jack Byrne and Dylan Harrington set the early Class 2 pace in wet conditions, going 4.8 seconds faster than England on Birr’s opening Ballymackey test. Byrne’s early advantage evaporated on the next stage, though, when he picked up a puncture, losing three and a half minutes stopping to change the wheel. Jack Harris was another to suffer rally-defining time loss with a stage two puncture.
A brace of stage wins for Ben McFall and Mark McGeehan put them into a two-second lead over England going into Birr’s opening service halt. The class battle was too tight to call with Robert Cronin’s Opel Corsa Rally4 in the mix, less than ten seconds shy of the lead.
England moved back into the lead on stage four before another McFall brace of fastest times put him back in front by 1.3 seconds with three stages to go. The lead had changed hands multiple times as the two Rally4 aces traded stage wins. Meanwhile, an increasingly competitive Ross Ryan and James Deane were now challenging Cronin for third, just 0.3 seconds behind the Opel pilot.
England continued his strong performance on Birr’s Ballymackey stage to move into a four-second lead before disaster struck McFall on Birr’s penultimate Forty Acres test when a puncture stopped his hopes of displacing England at the top. The Ford Fiesta Rally4 pilot lost over 20 seconds, handing England a healthy cushion.
That gave England breathing space to cruise home to victory over McFall, who put his penultimate stage disappointment behind him to secure second with his fifth fastest time of the day.
Ryan continued to impress in third, finishing 5.4 seconds ahead of Cronin. Danny Brady rounded out the top five after a solid day’s work.
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