David Kelly beats Josh Moffett by half a second after appeal and late Circuit of Ireland fight
David Kelly and co-driver Shane Buckley won the 2026 Circuit of Ireland Rally in Dungannon on 4 April, defeating Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes by just 0.5 seconds after a dramatic final-stage charge and a post-rally appeal. Kelly's Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 was only half a second quicker over twelve stages than Moffett's Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. The final result was especially contentious because reigning Irish Tarmac champion Callum Devine had gone off the road while leading on stage nine, prompting Moffett to say he lost time when he slowed to check on the stranded competitor. Kelly survived Moffett's appeal against the classification and was confirmed the winner.
A different leader before stage nine
Devine had been heading the competition, with his Skoda Fabia in front as the event entered its latter stages. On the second pass over Brantry Lough, stage nine, he slid off the road and lost approximately four minutes before he could continue. That incident removed the existing leader from the fight for victory. Moffett inherited first position as a consequence, but his rally had not been without complication. He later argued that he had slowed to check on Devine, a decision that he believed cost time. The appeal was part of the sporting sequence, not merely an argument added after a conventional rally finish.
Devine was able to resume and ultimately finished eighth, collecting championship points despite losing his chance of victory. That matters because he was not a retirement and the incident did not simply remove his car from the entry list. He had been the reigning Irish Tarmac champion, so the fourth-minute delay affected both the event order and the early-season championship narrative. Kelly and Moffett then had three stages in which to settle which crew would capitalise most effectively on Devine's setback.
Kelly attacks on Bockets Hill and Drummond Hill
The critical move came on stage ten, the second run over Bockets Hill. Kelly took a 4.1-second lead over Moffett and Hayes. On the penultimate Drummond Hill test, the Skoda crew increased the advantage to 4.9 seconds. That buffer was meaningful but far from secure: the rivals still had a final pass over Bockets Hill to contest, and any small error could turn a five-second gap into a defeat. It was also a wet and windy rally weekend, making a perfectly judged closing stage particularly difficult.
Moffett launched a powerful final-stage charge and gained most of the time back. Over the third and last pass of Bockets Hill he cut Kelly's lead from 4.9 seconds to only 0.5 seconds. The result therefore turned on how Kelly managed the final competitive kilometres while his rival extracted enough pace to make the finish extraordinarily close. Saying simply that Kelly led from start to finish would be false; Devine had led, Moffett inherited the advantage after Devine's incident, and Kelly then secured the lead before defending it against Moffett's final attempt.
The final podium and championship context
Eddie Doherty and Tom Murphy completed the podium in another Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, 59.2 seconds behind second-placed Moffett according to contemporary RTÉ reporting. The contrast in the gaps is striking: Kelly and Moffett were separated by half a second, while third place was almost a minute further behind. It was a contest defined by the two leading crews after Devine's slide, not a three-way photo finish. The Circuit of Ireland counted as round three of the NAPA Auto Parts Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, so the order carried points consequences beyond the Dungannon weekend.
Moffett moved ahead of Devine in the championship standings as the series prepared for the Rally of the Lakes in Killarney over the May bank-holiday weekend. That development illustrates the difference between individual event victory and points accumulation. Kelly claimed the Circuit of Ireland trophy, but Moffett's runner-up points helped his wider championship challenge. In August, Moffett and Hayes went on to win the fiftieth Ulster Rally in Ballymena by three seconds after taking the lead on the penultimate stage. Those two results show separate late-rally battles with opposite outcomes for the Toyota crew.
