'A dream come true' as Callum Devine conquers Donegal

Callum Devine's mind went back to his youth on Sunday evening.

The thoughts of a more innocent time, watching his father, Seamus, compete at the Donegal International Rally, flooded back.

But, this was Callum's moment. The 29-year-old Claudy man added his name to the famous roll of honour at the Donegal International Rally and struggled to take it all in as he rolled the VW Polo GTI R5 across the finish ramp at the Mount Errigal Hotel.

“This is a dream come true,” Devine told Donegal Live.

“This is the rally everybody wants. It's a dream.

“I was coming here since I was a young boy watching my dad competing here. It's surreal to be here. There was no rally I wanted more than this one.”

By the end of the 20 special stages, Devine had 55.5 seconds to spare on his nearest rival, the former British Rally champion Matt Edwards.

Josh Moffett, the defending champion, crashed out on SS17, the first loop of Fanad Head. Moffett led the field on Friday evening, but Devine hit back on Saturday, after which the margins were still fine (Devine leading by 4.7 seconds.

Alongside Noel O'Sullivan, Devine has had a fine year in the Polo and he now sits at the top of the Irish Tarmac Championship. This year previously, he won the Rally of the Lakes, the Circuit of Ireland and the Midland Stages.

Donegal, with its three days and 20 stages of the county's most testing asphalt, regarded as some of the best the world over, was the one he craved.

As he buckled the helmet at the start of the second run of Fanad Head, the event's final stage, Devine knew what he had to do.

He said: “At Fanad, we just wanted to get on with it. We could hear the thunderstorms coming to our left and I was just thinking: 'Let us at the road'. We pushed on all well.

“Before Josh went out there were only four seconds in it. I had to really keep the concentration. We knew that we had to push on. This is the game we're in – you have to push all the time.”

Devine had won in Donegal before – taking victory a the 2019 Harvest Stages Rally.

He has been a rising ace in Irish rallying for some time now. In 2017, he was presented with the Billy Coleman Award after taking the British Junior Rally Championship, having won the Irish Tarmac Rally R2 title the previous year.

Devine competed in the Junior World Rally in 2018, but Donegal was the one he had wanted on his sideboard.

He said: “It's hard to get this sunk in. It doesn't come much better than this. After last year and having such a tight battle this year, it's brilliant.”

Members of the family of the late Manus Kelly were at the ramp to present the Manus Kelly Trophy to the winning crew. The Glenswilly man, who lost his life while competing at the 2019 Donegal Rally, was firmly in the mind of the winner.

He said: “We wanted the Manus Kelly trophy too, that was in the back of our minds when we went to Fanad.”