Alastair Fisher is looking to reel in early Irish Tarmac Rally Championship leader Josh Moffett when the series resumes with the Circuit of Ireland Rally this weekend.

Fisher currently lies third in the standings after finishing sixth in Galway and third in West Cork, but Moffett in the Hyundai R5 has proved unbeatable so far, with two wins from his two outings.

Despite the sizeable points gap in the standings, Fisher is hopeful he can close the gap this weekend.

“Overall, there is still a lot to play for,” he said.

“The bulk of the season is still to go, and you are getting into the big events now where a lot can happen. There are also double points on offer on the Ulster Rally at the end of the season, so we are still in a positive frame of mind and confident that we can get to where we need to be, but we need to push on.”

With the best five scores to count from the seven-round series, the Circuit of Ireland needs to be kind to the Polo driver, but he concedes that he is expecting Moffett to be the man to beat once again.

“Josh has had a very strong start to the year and for the stages on the circuit, you could say he probably has an advantage because they are fairly fast stages, and that is where he has been very strong this year,” he said.

“The roads up here can be a bit different compared to what we experienced in West Cork. The tarmac is generally a bit smooth, and not as much grip from it. That is just another factor for this weekend that we have to consider.”

The Easter event is running for the first time since the pandemic forced its cancellation, and they have adopted a unique format this year to ensure the Ballymena-based event goes ahead.

They have limited the stages of the rally to two locations, with the stages each being run three times on Friday and then run three times each in the reverse direction the following day, giving 12 stages for the drivers to tackle.

“The organisers have picked two good stages, which does help,” said Alastair.

“Glendun is a stage everyone would have quite a bit of knowledge of from recent Circuit of Ireland and Ulster rallies. The Cairncastle has been run a couple of times over the past five or six years, but there are some new sections on it as well that a lot of people wouldn’t have seen, and there are sections I wouldn’t have recognised.”

Garry Jennings had hoped to join Fisher for the event, but following his withdrawal from the West Cork Rally on medical grounds, he is now not scheduled to be on the start line.

The rally starts on Friday, April 15 with the first car on stage one at 09.35, and the winner being crowned on Saturday afternoon.