Irish Notes 25th May 2005

Current ANCRO National Champion Steve Perez has entered his striking Vodka Kick backed Focus WRC on the 17/18/19th June Shell Donegal International Rally. Perez is no stranger to Irish rallying, having won the Killarney Historic in his Porsche 911, but this will be his first time to tackle Donegal, round four of the Pirelli Tarmac Championship. Neil Dashfield will again co-drive.

Former Tarmac GpN Champion Seamus Leonard switched from Subaru to Lancer this year, but is contemplating reverting to Subaru for the Donegal Rally, in Nasser Al-Attiyah's Prodrive built Jordan winning Impreza N11, although the deal is not yet done.

Patrick Elliott (Impreza WRC) leads the Dunlop National Championship points tally going into his home Cavan Rally this weekend, 3rd round of the series. The event is also a round of the class based Quinn Border series and such is the demand for entries that Noel Redmond, 3rd in the Dunlop Championship with his Impreza WRC, could only make 48th reserve!

Kevin Lynch (Impreza WRC) has won two rallies over the last two weekends, the Cork Moonraker and the Sperrins, both over gravel. The Dungiven man seems to have no problem switching from the forests to asphalt stages and will be going flat out for a win on this weekend's Cavan event to make it three out of three.

Niall Maguire, current Dunlop National Champion, is No.1 seed for this weekend's Cavan event, and Stan Harper Rally Preparations were in a race against time this weekend fitting a new engine and tidying Niall's Impreza WRC S9 for this weekend, following the Monaghan Rally accident..

Willie Fannin (Impreza N) leads the Dunlop GpN points list starting Cavan and will face tough production category opposition. One such is young Michael Curran, winner of GpN on last October's Donegal Harvest. Curran drives an Evo 7 and is awaiting delivery of a new Evo 8, which will be the last car to be built by Ralliart Germany. Michael stays sharp by competing in karts, and has won two rounds of the NI Championship this year.

Mid Antrim Motor Club is running their 'Turtles' Ballypatrick stages this weekend, which also includes stages over Orra and Torr Head. Maurice Gass (Fabia WRC), David Armstrong (Impreza WRC), Cathal Arthurs (Accent WRC), Kieran Shaw (Lancer WRC), Kieran Graffin (Lancer N) and Seamus Devine (Lancer N), are the top six seeds.

Brian Patterson.