Derek McGarrity salvaged 4th
place in his Impreza WRC S10 on last weekend’s
Donegal International Rally and that was enough to
keep him ahead in the Pirelli Tarmac Championship
points table with 43 points as against Donegal
winner Eugene Donnelly’s 42. Garry Jennings leads
the Group N category points from Aaron MacHale.
Niall McShea is competing
next week on the Sata Rally in the Azores, Niall
driving a Ralliart Italy Lancer. Mayo man Killian
Duffy will co-drive for the Production World Rally
Champion.
Sligo’s Andrew Mullan has
acquired an ex Guy Wilks 1400 Puma for his home
Sligo Rally in July.
George Tracey is close to
clinching a deal with Peugeot for one of their
development 307 WRC cars to use in Rallycross.
George was down to drive his Peugeot 205 WRC on last
week’s Shell Donegal International but withdrew at
the last moment as he was not entirely satisfied
with the suspension set up following a test
session.
The Dunlop National
Prizegiving, normally held on a regional rotational
basis is now moving to a more permanent base at the
City West Hotel, Dublin, and is scheduled for the 19th
November.
Steve Perez noticed something
strange about his Focus WRC’s brake pedal last
Saturday on the Donegal International, and when the
mechanics looked at the car they found a packet of
Regal cigarettes jammed under the brake pedal.
Steve looked at co-driver Neil Dashfield
quizzically, the latter adamant that he never smoked
this brand. Just then a mobile phone started to
ring, and the mechanic found a phone underneath
Steve’s seat. When he answered it an Irish voice
identifying himself as Ernie McIvor, a marshal on
the rally, and was wondering if anyone had found his
phone and his packet of fags. They had obviously
dropped out of his pocket when he reached into the
Focus for time cards!
This weekend’s Ravens Rock
Rally is round 5 of the Triton Showers South East
Stages Rally championship, with current leaders
Jason & Patrick Roche from Wicklow in their Escort,
2nd placed Brian Lawlor also in an Escort
and Alan Dineen in his Nova all in the 151 strong
entry. The rally is also the 3rd round of
the 023 Tiles Southern 4 Championship and the 2nd
round of the Ford Ka Championship.
Kevin Lynch (Impreza WRC) is
the No.1 seed for the Ravens Rock event but Kevin is
still suffering from a very painful back problem and
hopefully will be fit to start the event. Ray Breen
is the highest seeded local driver on the Waterford
based Ravens Rock, and is joint leader of the Dunlop
championship with Kevin Lynch.
David Long has acquired the
ex Denis Cronin Celica and is seeded at 15 in Ravens
Rock and plans to use the event as a shake down for
next year’s Dunlop series.
Regards
Brian Patterson
