Oran England and Darragh Mullen stormed to the first ever Stellantis Rally Cup Ireland victory last weekend, taking their Peugeot 208 Rally4 to a 43 second victory at a spectacular Abbey Court Hotel Birr Stages Rally.
England, hailing from Cavan, battled with a sizeable Stellantis Cup field of 10 other contenders, to come out on top after nine stages and over 107km of competitive driving throughout the opening round of the season. The youngster would scoop the €1,500 winning voucher for his win, whilst Robert Cronin/Paddy Heffernan took the runner-up spot in their Corsa Rally4, and Danny Brady/ Liam Callaghan rounded out the podium and prize money spots in third.
Promoted by Race & Rally and supported by Michelin Motorsport, crews in either Peugeot 208, Opel Corsa or Lancia Ypsilon HF Rally4 examples will battle for valuable on-event rewards, with €3,000 in parts vouchers up for grabs at each round, adding further incentive to an already fiercely competitive field.
A funded drive at the Hungarian Zemplén Rally and an exclusive test in the Lancia Ypsilon HF Rally2 await the champion, and so the battle was fierce up and down the field.
It was Jack Byrne who topped the time sheets on the opening test, enjoying an early 4.8s lead over England. Sadly his impressive start would be halted on the second test, picking up a puncture towards the start, promoting England into the lead with Cronin second, stopping the clocks just 0.4s shy of England.
Scottish visitor Ross Hunter would impress early on, sitting third after the opening loop, but his charge would fade, being swallowed up by Dean Murphy on the second loop and eventually finishing fifth.
However, Murphy would also fall down the order as the rally headed into the final loop, with Brady’s exceptional run over the final two tests giving him the final podium position. Cronin enjoyed a consitent run to second spot in one of two Corsa Rally4’s in the series, but no one could stop England who went on to claim the maiden Stellantis Cup Ireland win.
“We managed to ‘swim’ through it,” said England.
“It was a brilliant but tough race. The boys kept us on our toes all day. We’d win a stage, then they’d win one. We never really had a chance to breathe and it was a fight right down to the wire.”
The next round of the series heads to the Carlow Stages in May.
Check out the standings HERE
