Alastair Fisher secured a podium finish on the West Cork Rally, mounting a late charge to claim third overall on the second round of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship.

The Ballinamallard driver and co-driver Gordon Noble climbed from fifth to third over the final three stages of the Clonakilty-based event to reignite their Tarmac Championship challenge, while there was also class success for Declan Campbell who won class 12, and Ruairi and Martin McGarrity took second in class 2.

Fisher went into the event knowing he had to claim a significant haul of Championship points if he was to stay in touch with the early series leaders, but he started slowly and found himself back in sixth overall after five stages.

As he became more comfortable with the car and conditions, he forced his way ahead of Cathan McCourt on stage six, and a joint fastest time on the following test took him ahead of Johnny Greer into fourth spot.

On fast, dry tarmac stages there was no let up in the frantic pace of the front runners on day two. Fisher recorded another fastest time on the day’s opening test around the famous Ring stage, but he fell back behind Greer on stage ten when he twice overshot junctions, handing back more than ten seconds to the competition.

McCourt’s challenge ended with an accident on stage 12, and Callum Duffy also exited the rally with gearbox failure to promote Fisher to fourth.

With one stage remaining it appeared that the Fermanagh driver would miss out on the podium, but Greer retired on the final stage, handing third to Fisher.

“In the end it was a rewarding result for our commitment on the stages, once we got the feel of them,” said Alastair.

“There were a couple of guys who made mistakes which helped us, but across the weekend we were all pushing to the limit, and it really could have gone any way for all of us. It was good to get some points on the board and get up and going. We were building the speed and getting comfortable with the car, and we had four stage wins in the end.

“Overall, we were relatively happy.”

Josh Moffett doubled up on his Galway win with another overall success to open up a lead in the series standings, but Alastair intends to be on the start line of the next two rounds – the Easter Stages and Killarney – in a bid to reduce the deficit.

Further down the leader board, Declan Campbell and Kevin Creighan dominated class 12 in their Ford Escort to take the win, with Damian Campbell and Declan McGarrity claiming sixth in class 13.

After a slow start Chris Armstrong mounted a recovery drive on day two to claim second in class 14 and sixth overall in the National section of the event, with Ruari and Martin McGarrity finishing second in class 2 in their Citroen DS3.