William Mavitty moved to within touching distance of the Group N Irish Tarmac Championship crown with maximum points on last weekend’s Ulster International Rally.

The Mitsubishi driver survived the treacherous conditions to top the IRTC2 standings on the penultimate round of the series, and he is now in pole position to retain the title he first won in 2017.

“It leaves me in a good position for the Tarmac Championship and I should be hard enough to catch in it but you never know,” said William.

“Cork 20 is the last round of both championships and I probably just need to start it, as there is five points for starting. Because we were able to get a good haul of points this weekend means we are in a strong position. Hopefully it all works out alright.”

The Enniskillen man is also in a good position to take the Celtic Trophy championship, which would be rewarded with entry to the European final in Portugal.

Despite not taking his place in the starting line up for the Donegal Rally, the Ulster rally success hauled him back to the top, and he now has a decision to make with two rounds remaining, starting with Rally Isle of Man in two weeks’ time.

“It’s not long so we are trying to see what the options are and who else is going to go,” said William.

“The British Championship boys that are in it as well so we need to do our sums to see if I need to go and also can I afford to go. Its double points to entice you to go to it, so if I don’t go and some of the other guys do go it might leave me in a bad position.

"We would probably have had everything sewn up if we had gone to Donegal but because we weren’t there it has put us back a bit. Hopefully we can get back into that shoot out in Portugal again.”

William’s Ulster Rally success started with a steady pace in wet conditions, but on day two he made his move to secure the class win.

“On Friday I struggled a bit with my pace but we were able to up our game on Saturday,” he said.

“Friday was all about trying to gauge a pace that we weren’t going to make a mistake but we were going to keep a reasonable pace. It was so slippery that you could have a lot of grip going into the corner and no grip coming out of the corner. On Saturday when it dried out we had a good run and moved up the field fairly well when I got a bit of confidence with the grip. Tyre choice was the biggest problem, but we got round it and plenty of boys didn’t.”