Callum Devine says he is “absolutely delighted” after winning the 2024 Donegal International Rally.
The Derry man secured his second Donegal win in as many years, winning by 17.4 seconds over second-placed Meirion Evans.
It was far from smooth sailing from start to finish though, as Devine had to adapt to a new car as his Skoda RS Rally 2 car took to Irish tarmac stages for the first time this weekend.
“It’s our time here with the Skoda RS here in Ireland, we got her dialled in all weekend and to get the win is absolutely fantastic,” Callum told Donegal Daily after the rally.
“After day 1 we were doing a lot of setup changes, adding a lot of new stuff to the car and I said to myself – ‘is it really wise at all doing all this?’- but thankfully we put our heads down in the dry weather and managed to claw a big bit of time out of Matt (heading into the final day).”
Welsh driver Matt Edwards was Callum’s main competition for much of the rally, leading both of the first two days before making a huge mistake and damaging his Ford Focus heavily on Stage 16 on Sunday afternoon.
“Unfortunately for matt he also clipped and ran up a bank, that’s the way it goes unfortunately, I know all about it from two years ago myself,” said Callum – referring to the 2022 edition of the rally, when he himself crashed out in the final stages.
“We knew last night that the margins were so small… we pushed hard and managed to get that time back out of Matt and obviously probably put the pressure back on them a bit. Then obviously this morning as well we were fastest again taking another few seconds out of them.”
Another crucial moment of the rally for Devine was a spin yesterday that cost him upwards of 13 seconds and also ripped the front bumper off his Skoda – although he wasn’t too bothered this evening after crossing the line first.
“We didn’t make it easy obviously with the spin, and a few other wee moments over the weekend but we’re absolutely delighted.”
“It was a good rally, I’m absolutely delighted and (co-driver Noel O’Sullivan) did an absolutely fantastic job again as did the whole team.”
Callum Devine “absolutely delighted” after securing back-to-back Donegal Rally wins was last modified: June 24th, 2024 by