DEVINE HEADS CORK ENTRY LIST, BREEN ABSENT
Callum Devine heads the seeded entry list for this weekend’s
Cork ‘20’ International – the final round of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship – as he looks to take his first ever outright rally victory.
The 25-year-old has steadily improved throughout the season, finishing third on his past three events, which included a stunning performance in Donegal where he finished as the top R5 competitor.
This was sandwiched in between strong performances at the Rally of the Lakes and the Ulster Rally aboard his
Ford Fiesta R5.
“It’s an honour to be seeded number one on an international rally,” said Devine. “The pace has been good all year and we’ve been building it up all the time.
“We’ve given our best on every event this year, it has been flat out since the word go, within our own limitations.
“It won’t be easy being first on the road. From a navigator’s point of view, you’re the person checking in the times, you can’t just follow the person in front. It’ll be unfamiliar territory.”
One driver not competing this weekend will be 2019 ITRC champion Craig Breen, who has decided to miss the event in order to focus on his World Rally Championship return.
“It was absolutely the plan to do it,” said the Hyundai driver.
“Cork ‘20’ is a brilliant rally, one of the best I’ve ever done.
“I’ve only done it once, in 2010 [finished third in Fiesta S2000] – I haven’t been able to getback since. But the stages that are used, especially this year, are fantastic. They’re going back to the roads they used when [Sebastien] Loeb came over to do the event in the C4.
“There’s the stage – Kilnamartyra – which Loeb reckoned was the best Tarmac stage he’d ever done in his life.
“I was going to do Cork in the Hyundai, in the i20 R5, but I’m testing instead now and can’t make it. I’m working with Hyundai on some Tarmac and gravel work.”