After a fierce battle throughout the event Enniskerry rally driver Daniel Barry, together with his co-driver Mark Bowens from Castlemartr, finished a hard-fought second place in round one of the 2008 Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge – and came home an impressive seventh overall and second in the production car class.

Having spent a season competing in the Mitsubishi championship in 2007, in order to learn the car and the events, Daniel and Mark are focussed on challenging for the title this year. As part of the build-up to the first round, they contested the Wyedean Rally two weeks beforehand and again, finished an excellent second in class.

The first event in the seven-round series for Group N Mitsubishis was this weekendʼs Rallye Sunseeker. Based in Bournemouth, this popular rally featured two spectator stages along the sea front on Friday evening, followed by a further 11 stages on Saturday in the nearby Ringwood and Wareham forests. After the first two short stages on Friday evening, in front of 1000s of spectators, Daniel and Mark found themselves well-placed, just four seconds behind the leading Mitsubishi of David Bogie and seventh of the Evo Challenge runners.

Switching to their preferred surface of gravel on Saturday, they immediately made up two places on the first
stage of the day and continued to hunt down their rivals. However, with a crop of excellent drivers contesting this yearʼs Evolution Challenge, the Irish pairing found themselves locked in a battle with nine other Mitsubishi crews- all posting times just fractions of a second apart.

At the first service halt after stage six, Daniel reported that all was going well and he and Mark set off for the next loop of five stages determined to improve on fifth place in the Evolution Challenge – which is exactly what they did. As the pressure got to some of the drivers around him, the 24-year old Irishman kept a cool head and, on stage eight he and Mark moved up to fourth. Then, on stage nine, after setting the fastest Mitsubishi time, they moved up to second.

As they arrived at the second service halt with just two stages left to go, the results showed they were just 18 seconds behind Bogie. With the bit between his teeth Daniel pushed hard through the final two stages and, although making up nine seconds of the deficit, Daniel and Mark crossed the line to take a well-earned second place in the Evolution Challenge, five seconds ahead of third-placed Welshman Sebastian Ling.

“I am delighted with the result”, said Daniel at the finish. “I drove as hard as I could without making any mistakes and, looking at the stage times, I am pleased to see that we were on the pace of the front-runners all day. The competition this year is really strong, so to do well in such good company is very satisfying. I now canʼt wait until the next event!”

Daniel, Mark and the Barry Motorsport team will be in action again on round two of the Mitsubishi Ralliart Evolution Challenge, the Border Counties Rally, which takes place in Kielder Forest on 5th April.

Danielʼs 2007 campaign is supported by: Tech-Plus, Irish Transport & Shipping, BPI Telecom, Henco underfloor heating and SC Signs.