The Donegal International Rally, held over three days, featured a hefty 20 special stages, totalling approximately 271 kilometres. For comparison, World Rally Championship (WRC) events have a minimum stage length of 300 kilometres, so this was quite a demanding challenge for a national-level event.
Devine took control of the rally right from Friday and never relinquished his lead. After Friday’s six special stages, former WRC driver Hayden Paddon was in second place, trailing Devine by 12.4 seconds. However, Paddon crashed during a slippery braking section on stage 11 on Saturday afternoon. The New Zealander won’t have much time to dwell on the mishap though, as he will compete next weekend in the Ypres Rally in Belgium.
Driving a Škoda, Devine eventually won the rally by a margin of 20.5 seconds over Toyota driver Meirion Evans. Jon Armstrong, who drove a Ford and had finished on the podium at the European Championship rally in Poland the previous week, suffered a harsh blow when he retired from third place on the final stage. Volkswagen driver David Kelly claimed third place, ahead of Hyundai’s Josh Moffett.
“To be honest, I was quite happy with my driving all weekend – not one moment, not one mishap all weekend apart from a small overshoot on the Saturday – and once I got myself into a good lead, I was able to fall back into a ‘manage it’ mode and go from there,” Devine said according to the Belfast Telegraph.
“Noel (co-driver O’Sullivan) again, was top-class, the team were top-class, the tyre choice – everything, really – was top-class and you need all of those things to work if you are to come out on top here. I think it also shows to people the Irish Tarmac Championship is pretty fast.”
The 31-year-old Devine has previously dabbled in both the European and World Rally Championships, though without major success. However, on the familiar roads of his homeland, his pace is formidable. This was Devine’s third win of the season from several starts.
“It is pretty amazing – we are absolutely thrilled. The competition here this weekend has been top-class and all the guys that came here to race have pushed us really hard. For the first Donegal win, I put a lot of pressure on myself, but once you manage to get it over the line and you can see how it is done, it makes a difference.”
Donegal International Rally – Final results:
| POS | Driver | Car | Time |
| 1. | Callum Devine | Skoda | 2:23:30.2 |
| 2. | Meirion Evans | Toyota | +20.5 |
| 3. | David Kelly | VW | +1:22.9 |
| 4. | Josh Moffett | Hyundai | +1:30.0 |
| 5. | Michael Boyle | Skoda | +3:18.0 |
| 6. | Declan Boyle | Skoda | +4:03.3 |
| 7. | Kevin Eves | Ford | +4:39.4 |
