Just Devine as Callum takes Coleman Award
BRITISH Junior champion Callum Devine has been named Motorsport Ireland’s Young Rally Driver of the Year and the recipient of a €50,000 (£44,000) bursary towards his 2018 programme of events.
The 23-year-old, from the village of Park near Londonderry, was one of three finalists from a shortlist of eight drivers chosen over the course of the past season and he was elated to be announced the winner at yesterday’s Beta Motorsport Ireland awards lunch in Dublin.
Devine, driving an Opel Adam R2, won the British title in a close fight with fellow Ulster driver William Creighton, clinching the championship on the final round in the Isle of Man. But the highlight for him was his BRC Junior victory in the Ypres Rally in Belgium in the summer, although there was also the disappointment of retiring from his home round of the series, the Ulster International.
He was joined in the final three by Kevin Eves from Donegal and Jonny Treanor from Monaghan but was the unanimous choice of the judges to receive the Billy Coleman Award and the €50,000 prize fund.
Devine joins a list which includes Craig Breen, Sam and Josh Moffett, Robert Barrable and Keith Cronin, who this sea- son won the Ulster Rally on his way to a fourth British championship success. He was named MI’s International Driver of the Year.
Charlie Eastwood, the British Porsche Carrera Cup champion from Belfast, was one of the three finalists in the Young Racing Driver of the Year category but the award and the €50,000 bursary went to Jordan Dempsey, the 18-year-old Formula Ford race winner from Mullingar.
Other drivers honoured at the Mansion House lunch included Sam Moffett, who won the Irish Tarmac Championship and the national and forestry rally titles in a record-breaking season, as well as Alan Auerbach, the national racing champion.