Galway’s Aoife Raftery will compete in her first Irish National Rally Championship event of the year this weekend at the Clare Rally in Ennis on Sunday.
The Craughwell native has spent most of 2023 contesting FIA European Rally Championship events in a PCRS Rallysport-run Peugeot 208 Rally4.
Her European adventures took her to Poland, Italy, Latvia, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Wales.
During a lull in European activities, Rafferty, who is a Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy member, has decided to return home and contest the Ennis-based rally which is a relatively local event for her.
Although she has contested several tarmac rallies in Ireland this year including the Down Rally in July and the Laois Heartlands Rally in June this is her first Irish National Rally since the Galway Summer Rally in August last year.
Raftery will drive a Ford Fiesta R2, run by Galway-based Broderick Motorsport, in the highly competitive Class 2 category in Ennis on Sunday.
The last time she drove the Fiesta was at Rali Bae Ceredigion in Wales earlier this month where she finished third amongst the British Junior Rally Championship contenders.
The Clare Motor Club organised event is the penultimate round of the Triton Showers Motorsport Ireland National Rally Championship and the Class 2 section of the event has attracted entries from some of Ireland’s top career aspirational drivers.
“I am really looking forward to competing at home after a hectic summer abroad. Class 2 is very strong and it will be great to see how we measure up against the regulars in the National Championship,” said Aoife Raftery.
Opposition includes the leader of the Class 2 category in the Triton Showers National Rally Championship, Ryan McHugh who was a winner in Kerry and on the Raven’s Rock rallies earlier this year, and he heads the Clare Rally entry list.
Second-placed driver championship driver Cian Caldwell, the Sligo Rally winner, has also entered Clare, as has Keelan Grogan who has won three of the five rallies he has contested this year including last time out in the ALMC Rally in County Meath in August.
Rally Academy driver Dylan Eves is also on the Clare entry list while fellow Donegal man Matthew Boyle, currently in fourth place in the championship, is also entered.
Casey Jay Coleman and Rally Academy co-driver Lorcan Moore hope to give their Peugeot 208 Rally4 its tarmac debut in Banner County.
Kerry driver Mossie Costello will make his Class 2 tarmac debut having already contested a few gravel rallies in his newly acquired Fiesta.
