Aoife Raftery finishes in the top ten in Tet Rally Liepaja in Latvia

Aoife Raftery took a top-ten finish in the Junior element of the Tet Rally Liepaja in Latvia over the weekend.

The Craughwell native is contesting this year’s FIA European Rally Championship – the first Irish woman to do so since Rosemary Smith in the 1960s and 1970s – and the Latvian event was the second round of that competition.

She and her Welsh co-driver Claire Williams made their appearance of the year after a successful maiden outing in Poland last month driving a PCRS Rallysport-prepared Peugeot 208 Rally 4.

Another progressive weekend for the Galway woman, she scored her first FIA Junior European Rally Championship top-ten finish.

She finished in ninth position, driving for the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy and leaves Latvia in seventh place in the championship standings.

“Delighted to get the finish of Rally Liepaja, it is great to get to the end of a challenging rally, the stages were so fast, thanks to everyone who got us here, the Rally Academy, Claire my co-driver and PCRS, and especially my dad as well, everyone has been a great help,” she said.

 “It has been a great weekend and I can’t wait for the next one.”

Galway Bay FM