In-form Galway rally driver Raftery maintains his flying start to season

GALWAY rally driver Dean Raftery shone again in the forests to take the Junior event – making it three from three in the Valvoline championship – at the Willie Loughman Forestry Rally in Slieverue, Waterford last weekend.

Although revamped for 2013 to attract a large entry of over one hundred cars, Craughwell driver Raftery got off to a steady start on stage one, despite heavy rain which led to tricky conditions, particularly on Sunday’s stages.

Indeed, by the time morning service came, Raftery had moved into a 16 second lead, ahead of Kevin Eves in a Citroen C2R2 Max, before the crews headed back out to the New Ross area for a repeat of the morning stages.

Drama struck on stage five when Raftery picked up a rear left puncture, early in the stage. Luckily, though, the tyre didn’t fully deflate until later in the stage, the crew dropping only 20 seconds.

This time loss did put the pressure on Raftery as Eves had closed to within three seconds of the lead but, despite this setback, he increased this advantage on every stage for the remainder of the day and in the end had a comfortable winning margin of one minute.

“Today was very tough, but also very enjoyable! We kept a steady pace all day and we are delighted with another win!” commented Raftery afterwards.

He now holds a commanding lead in the Championship with three wins from three. The crew will be hoping for another good finish at the next round of the Valvoline Irish Forest Championship in June, where it is possible for the crew to wrap up the championship.

Meanwhile, with no scheduled date for the opening round of the NGK Spark Plugs BRC Challenge (the Morris Lubricants Rally North Wales) which was postponed a fortnight ago, Raftery is now considering competing for the Pirelli Richard Burns Foundation Rally in Carlisle, England in early May.

However, this has yet to be confirmed as he is due to sit his final economics exams at NUIG around that time.