Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy driver Josh McErlean was very happy with his pace on tarmac this weekend despite being cruelly denied a top-ten finish.
Barum Rally Zlin was his first tarmac event in eight months and he looked odds on to record a top-ten finish until lady luck intervened.
McErlean and co-driver James Fulton started the final day of the seventh round of the FIA European Rally Championship in tenth place overall.
That changed to 11th when local hero Erik Cis overtook the Hyundai i20 Rally 2 crew but a top ten finish remained on the cards after FIA European Champion elect Hayden Paddon crashed out of the event.
But on the final three-stage loop of the rally, the Irish crew’s car developed a mysterious technical issue that neither the crew nor their PCRS Rallysport mechanics could identify and they dropped to 13th overall.
It was a bitter disappointment for the crew and the team on what was their first tarmac rally since Rallye Monte Carlo in January.
Ahead of the final three stages, the Derry man was upbeat after accomplishing his pre-event target.
“It has been a tricky event, we came here to learn the roads and get back on to tarmac, it has been quite a while since Monte Carlo at the start of the year, it has been tricky with the character of the roads throughout the event,” he said.
“The fans here have been incredible, they have filled the roads, even on the road sections, we really enjoyed it.”
The rally officially got underway on Friday evening with an opening super special stage in the streets of Zlín.
Saturday’s schedule comprised of six stages, three stages repeated in the morning and in the afternoon.
Another six stages took place on Sunday, making a total of 13 stages and 200km of competition.
There was also disappointment for Monaghan co-driver Mac Kierans, who was on pacenote duty for Australian Max McRae. They ended Saturday in second place in the FIA European Junior Rally Championship.
They were as low as fourth pace after the opening loop of Saturday stages after an off-road excursion.
Local spectators helped them re-join the road and a string recovery drive in the afternoon sees them just 42.9 seconds off the class leader Timo Schulz ahead of Sunday’s final loop.
The Australian/Irish pairing went on a charge over Sunday’s six stages and were lucky to survive a huge moment near the end of stage ten.
They were up to second in the FIA Junior category when their Peugeot Rally 4 went off the road and out of the rally on the event’s penultimate stage
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