Jordan and Paul Hone, delivered a cool and calm masterclass, to claim a very first rally victory on the Killarney Forest Rally and leave with maximum points, in the hunt for the Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship title.

With ninety cars starting the event, the buzz was real in the build up, but a lot of crews will have been surprised to wake up to misty rain, but it matterd little to the Hones, as they finished the 12.6km opening stage fastest in their Ford Fiesta R5. Andrew Purcell and Liam Brennan would go quickest on the middle stage of the loop, but the Hones would again claim a stage win, to return to mid-day service with a lead, but it was fine margain stuff as they only had 1.7 seconds to spare over Vivian Hamill and Gary Nolan and the similar VW Polo GTi of Purcell & Brennan in third.

In the afternoon though Hone, guided by his father Paul on the notes, upped the pace again going fastest on Stages 4 and 6, returning to Castleisland Mart with an 11.2 second gap to Hamill and Nolan, with third going to a rather surprised Niall McGonigle and Caolan McKenna, who leave the Killarney Forest Rally with a stage win and podium finish, on what had been intended as a shakedown for next weekend Fivemiletown event.

In the 2WD battle, Shane McGirr and Denver Rafferty made a successful trip south, as they claimed a well deserved victory. Ian McCarthy and Patrick O’Sullivan, drove their Honda Civic  to victory in Class 11F, and they would also claim the Sligo Pallets Drive of the Day for their performance on Stage 4, with championship sponsor Andrew Mullen, on hand to present the pair with their prize.

In a bumper J1000 battle, the Killarney event would be dominated by Danny Brady and Darren O’Brien in their newly acquired VW Up, leading the event from start to finish. They would finish the event 8.2 seconds ahead of Tommy Cronin & Derek Butler, with Ryan Caldwell & his father Darren Caldwell finishing third. The Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship returns on April 14th with the Carrick-on-Suir Willie Loughman Forest Rally.