Raftery shines at Rallye Sunseeker

Dean Raftery and Aileen Kelly claimed a sensational victory at the final round of the BRC Challenge at Rallye Sunseeker in Dorset at the weekend.

The youngster from Galway, claimed victory by a margin of 19 seconds from Russ Thompson. The leader of the rally changed back and forth between the two crews, before Dean began to pull away after the final service halt in Poole.

Heavy rain on Friday night led to extremely slippery conditions for the competitors on the Saturday morning stages. Dean set a cautious pace in the morning stages not taking any risks to lead by just 0.7 seconds from Thompson at the first service. Thompson took the lead on stage 5 with Raftery dropping a significant amount of time, Dean explaining the time loss due to a handling difficulty from the rear of the car. On stage 6, Dean retook the lead and never looked back claiming four stage victories in a row to take the victory.

Pic courtesy: Tom Murphy, Murphoto Rally

This was Dean’s second Challenge Rally win after also taking victory in the Ulster Rally in August. “We had a good run today and it’s nice to have won on gravel as well as asphalt, it shows we have a good pace on both surfaces. The stages were tough today, last night’s rain caused very slippery conditions so we had to drive a smart rally, and I’m over the moon with the victory”.

Dean is now looking towards 2014 and plans to step up to the British Rally Championship in an R2 car. The Galway man will have a busy winter as he prepares for the Motorsport Ireland Billy Coleman Young Driver of the Year interview process which takes place next month.

The winner of this prestigious award receives €50,000 worth of support to contest stage rallies nationally & internationally in 2014 along with the support of Billy Coleman co-ordinator, Tom Walsh, while the two runners-up will receive free entries into a number of MI permitted events in 2014, along with co-ordinator support.

Five bi-monthly winners are selected from January-February, through to September-October, joined by the winner of the Junior Championship in the Dunlop National series, the winner of the Junior class in the Valvoline National Forestry Championship, and a wildcard selection, as the award finalists.
Dean has qualified as a nominee for his performances in March-April and also as the winner of the Junior Championship in the National Forestry Championship.