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23 Oct 2025

Mayo rally drivers shine on national stage

Motorsport enthusiast Andy Walsh from Ballinrobe takes a look back on another exciting year for the sport

Mayo rally drives shine on national stage

The 2024 Irish Rallying season was simply sensational. It had everything – entry lists bulging at the seams, enthralling racing and an astonishing last-stage finale in the National Championships, all of which saw many Mayo crews travel the length and breadth of the country.

A pair of teenage Mayo drivers also contested the Irish Forestry J1000 series, Aaron Hughes from Ballindine and Bekan’s Adam Ronan, which saw Donegal’s Oisín McShane crowned the sport’s youngest-ever J1000 driver champion at 15 years of age.

The year began in earnest for many local Mayo crews as they turned their wheels at the Galway International Rally the first weekend of February.

John Warren and Ruthann O’Connor - without doubt the most successful and recognizable local rally team - flew the McHale Fusion 4 Rally team flag, securing a class win in their infamous Green Machine Toyota. Little did the public know at the time that this would be a rare outing for the Corolla as the husband and wife team took a journey with a very different path as the year went on (more about that later in this review).

Other local drivers making the short trip across the border into Galway included Westport’s David Healy who, during a very busy 2024, claimed a class win in Birr on his way to recording second-place in the Border Rally Championships. Also making cameo-like appearances in Galway were Headford’s Justin Ryan and Shrule’s Jason and Noel Murphy.

CHARIOTS OF FIRE

Mayo Stages Rally returned in March and with its return so did a host of local drivers blowing the dust of their chosen chariots! Belcarra’s Barry Cuffe wheeled out his beautiful Ford Escort Mk2 taking home silverware, also claiming class awards were Keith Jacob and Michael Carr in their Subarum who won Class 15 ahead of Foxford’s James McGreal and Paddy O’Hora. John Duffy and John Egan chalked up another Mayo Rally which put Duffy into the position of third-most Mayo Rally starts ever!

Martin Cawley, Chris Rose, Colm Conor, Steven Cafferty, Dwayne and Jamie Lally along with John McLoughlin also few local flags in the event. The top local crew to finish the event were aforementioned John Warren and Ruthann O’Connor, who retained the Margaret McGreal Cup for their efforts.

As the year wore on a host of other drivers and co-drivers with connections to the area competed successfully in events. Brothers Derek and Mervyn Deane from Williamstown unveiled their magnificent Escort Mk2 in events such as Carlow, Birr and Killarney. David Doherty in his Switch2Solar Mitsubishi Evo travelled to Tipperary, Limerick, Birr, and Galway Summer Rally after debuting the car at Mayo Stages.

Achill’s Brian Lavelle had a year to forget as misfortune followed him around in his ex-Michael Loughney Ford Escort, but Lavelle has already stopped dwelling on 2024 and is fully focused on 2025 and getting mileage under his belt.
Crossmolina’s Lorcan Moore had an extremely busy year as he sat in the co-driver’s seat on 23 events which even saw him compete in Barbados and somehow find the time to switch over to the driver’s seat to compete in Clare Forest Rally. Also busy calling pace notes was Andrew Grennan, a Monaghan man who is now based in Claremorris running the successful Western Truck and Trailer business, Andrew’s highlight of a busy 2024 was a podium at the Bushwhacker Gravel Rally in Omagh.

Castlebar’s Conor Duffy was another busy co-driver who competed in six events north and south of the border during the year. Jared Gill also proved his worth as a co-driver as along with many Irish starts the Bofeenaun man also competed in Belgium during the year.

THE DREAM TEAM

Returning to the famous McHale Fusion 4 Rally team, John Warren and Ruthann O’Connor surprised a lot of rally fans as they parked their Green Machine Corolla and appeared in a purpose-built R5 Fiesta earlier in the year.

Proven as the most successful global rally car ever, John and Ruthann didn’t disappoint and blitzed many seasoned R5 drivers at events during the year. The pair then switched to the more modern version of the Fiesta, the Rally2 model, Both models are built by M-Sport in the UK with the latter the most recent and most up-to-date in modern rally car specifications, their performances were capped off with Ruthann retaining the Women’s Champion Award for 2024.

Elsewhere in the motorsport world, former Ballyhaunis Community School woodwork teacher Sean McHugh continued to grow the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy in his role as coordinator and broker deals for Ireland’s young rally drivers to compete at the top level of motorsport around the world including the European Rally Championships and at the pinnacle of the sport in the World Rally Championships.

Elsewhere, Killian Duffy from Claremorris and Ballinrobe’s Andy Walsh took their ‘On the Pacenote’ Rally streaming service to new heights during the year, growing their audience to over eighty thousand followers with millions of views worldwide.

Andy Walsh is former PRO with Mayo Motorsport and a long-time motorsport enthusiast from Ballinrobe.

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