Brian Hoy navigated Callum Devine to victory on Sunday’s Cork 20 Rally, holding off a challenge from Meirion Evans to take victory by 20 seconds.

The pair had racked up some impressive results before the pandemic halted rallying worldwide.

As rallying resumed overseas, Hoy was absent from Devine’s co-driver’s seat, but the pair reunited for the first traditional stage event run by Motorsport Ireland, and immediately returned to winning ways.

“We went with the aim of winning the rally. That is what we were looking for before the start,” admitted Hoy.

“Callum was looking to benefit from the experience he had gained when he was away. He didn’t get that many results when he was on the ERC [European Rally Championship] in relation to how good a driver he was, and he wanted to come home and show he had made steps forward, but the competition is strong.

“There are the likes of Josh and Sam Moffatt, Meirion Evans, Cathan McCourt. If you make a mistake, those boys are there to gather it up.

“There is nobody running away with these Irish rallies, and the pace is so hot.”

Devine and Hoy started the event as one of the favourites for victory, but had a scare before the first competitive stage had even started.

“The car was missing a wee bit from parc ferme to the first stage, and it was cutting out when the throttle wasn’t on,” revealed Hoy.

“I noticed on the first couple of stages he was looking to get it down the gears into corners because he was afraid of stalling. That kind of put him off a bit, but we have a good man on the computer, and he did something with her in service and that sorted it out.”

The pair took the lead of the event on the first stage, but they were delayed on stage three when they came on the accident of Donagh Kelly.

That delay put them behind the Polo of Welshman Meirion Evans, but later in the rally they were awarded the lost seconds back, and they made a decisive move when the rain started to fall before stage seven.

“It started to rain about ten minutes before we came out of service,” he explained. “We had boys out there telling us the weather.

“We were waiting and waiting to see what happened, and I think we got it right. Meirion went out on full intermediates, and we were probably on an in-between tyre, and it was the right choice. It got us over the line.”

Their stage time saw them increase their slender two-second lead to a 13-second advantage, and they were then able to manage their lead to the finish.

“The pair’s next outing is expected to be the Donegal Town-based Harvest Rally in two weeks’ time.

In the National section of the rally, James Stafford in his Darrian took a commanding victory, with the distinctive Ford Escort of Chris Armstrong claiming fifth overall.

“We went with the aim of winning the rally. That is what we were looking for before the start