John Warren and Ruthann O Connor continued their impressive recent form, finishing in 12th place overall on Sunday’s Circuit of Munster based in Limerick.
The husband and wife team once again rolled out the McHale Fusion 4 Plus Fiesta R5 from the IN Sport stable.
In what was only the pairs second outing in the most successful global rally car built by M-Sport, a couple of top 10 overall fastest times on SS4 and SS5 during the nine stage event and coming within 2 seconds of reigning Triton Showers National Rally Champion Josh Moffett on SS4 highlighted the ease in which the South Mayo crew have settled into this new generation Green Machine on the Irish Rally stages.
“I’m really pleased with the pace we have shown this weekend,” said Warren
“When you look at our first outing in the car a few weeks ago at Birr Stages Rally, I can see how much we have improved over the two events and that’s critical to my progression. Ruthann will be the first to tell you that I’m a competitive driver and to see this really makes me happy because I know there is still much more in the car for me to unleash.”
“It was all about managing that pace as well,” added Ruthann, “so we had to drive with our heads and deal with being in a position, where we find ourselves knocking on the door of the top 10 from over 150 cars that started the event, that’s not easy along with the pressure to match our recent result in Birr to prove it wasn't a fluke but it was a great feeling to know we dealt with the situation perfectly.”
“I want to say a big thanks once again to Niall McGonigle from IN Sport for the hire of the car and McHale’s for supporting us at the weekend.” added Ruthann
While Derry’s Callum Devine with Antrim’s John Rowan on the notes took a start-to-finish victory on the event in their Volkswagen Polo, it was once again the appearance of John and Ruthann’s finish in the summit of the leaderboard and the comparison from one rally fan of the nature of the McHale Fiesta R5’s ability to swallow up tarmac akin to the McHale Fusion 4 Plus balers ability to swallowing grass that once again impressed from the weekend.
When asked on the finish ramp at Lyons Motorgroup in Limerick if it now was a return to the original green machine Toyota Corolla?, John turned to Ruthann while still supporting the grin from the event and asked her if the old saying was ‘Good things come in threes?’
To keep up to date with the McHale Rally team and check out some of the amazing footage from the weekend follow ‘McHale Rallying’ on TikTok.