Brian Hoy was the best of the Fermanagh finishers after an incident-packed Galway International Rally.

The crews endured torrential rain and frequent standing water during the two-day rally, but Hoy and driver Callum Devine made it round unscathed to claim third overall, just ahead of Garry Jennings.

Alastair Fisher was one of many to be caught out in the conditions, sliding his R5 Polo into a bank and puncturing before recovering to claim championship points for a sixth-placed finish.

Fisher was back in competitive action for the first time in two years and he struggled to match the pace he showed on his last outing when he won the same event, setting fourth-fastest time on the opening stage – one second adrift of Hoy and Devine, and seven seconds back on early pace setter Meirion Evans.

Not eligible

Jennings’ right-hand drive version of the R5 Fiesta is not eligible for overall championship points, but he was a second further back in sixth and leading his class.

As the rain continued to fall during day one, the drivers were struggling to master the conditions, but the front runners all made it through the nine Saturday stages.

At the end of the day Josh Moffett held a 14-second advantage over Meirion Evans, with Hoy and Devine in third, ten seconds ahead of Alastair Fisher in fourth, with Jennings back in sixth.

Alastair Fisher’s hopes of a high points-scoring finish were all but ended on stage 11, as the slippery road caught him out.

He carried too much speed into a square right and slid straight on into a bank. He was able to continue but suffered a puncture, and had to stop a mile further down the stage to change the wheel.

Drama

The drama cost him three minutes and dropped him back to ninth.

Jennings also had an incident on the stage, but his overshoot took him down a slip road and he was able to turn and get back on track with the loss of just 15 seconds.

Fisher mounted a fightback and surged up the leaderboard to claim sixth-placed points by the end of the event, with Jennings finishing just outside the top three.

Brian Hoy finished in third spot behind Evans and rally winner Moffett, and he admitted that he was content with the podium result in testing conditions.

“If you had said on Friday morning would we have been happy with third, we would have said no, but after the whole weekend it wasn’t so bad,” he reflected.

“When you are starting the first round of the championship you are not going to win every rally, so you have to take it and move on. We probably saw Alastair as our main rival and we were happy we were able to beat him, but Josh and Meirion went very well.

“We thought the tyres worked well but there was just something small missing. When we are on a big push we are normally not far away, but this weekend we just didn’t seem to match the top boys.

“The standing water on the second stage on Saturday was unbelievable! You were just a passenger a lot of the time, and you were trying to push on but make sure the car doesn’t go over the hedge, but it was very, very hard.

“You would have thought someone had opened a tank and let the water down the hill! All I could feel was the car moving underneath us.

“It was hard, but when you look back we are glad to get through it. It could have gone all wrong because it was hairy in places.”