Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy driver Aoife Raftery had to put in a massive effort to secure the best female driver in a two-wheel drive car at Barum Rally Zlin.

The Galway girl’s rally got off to the worst possible start when during Friday’s opening stage the Peugeot 208 Rally4 driver overshot a junction and damaged its rear right wheel. The considerable time loss put her very much on the back foot for the remaining two days and 12 special stages.

On Saturday morning she set herself a target – to overcome Friday’s time loss and to be the fastest female driver in a two-wheel drive car.

Aoife and her Armagh-based co-driver Ronan Comeford – both Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy members were in determined mode over Saturday’s loop of six stages. They ended the day third in the woman’s category but more important, they were second in the two-wheel drive section.

 On Sunday Raftery nipped away at her rival’s times and with just one stage to go the gap was down to 1.4 seconds behind Hungarian Adrienne Vogul. Digging deep over the final 16km stage they set a time of nearly nine seconds faster than Vogel and take the win by 6.9 seconds.

Aoife also finished seventh in the FIA Junior ERC category, her second European Rally Championship points-scoring finish in a row following her 12th-place finish in Rome

“Honestly, I really enjoyed the event, it has been a class event, the whole thing, it was a great atmosphere, the stages are so tricky, but when you get into the flow, they are some stages,” she said.Ronan