Irish Notes 14^th November 2005 .

 

Gareth MacHale and his co-driver Paul Nagle collected their overall Forestry Champion awards at the prizegiving ceremony last weekend in Cahir. Glenn Allen/Damien Connolly were runners up, with former Champion Kevin O’Kane/Martin Hanna 3^rd. Gareth commented about the season, “We had some great battles, especially with Glen Allen and John McCarthy. It was very exciting, the rallies were fantastic, and the organisation was good, professional, and very friendly”  

 

McCauley Trailers are continuing their backing for the Forestry Championship into ’06. There are 8 rounds scheduled, with 7 to count. Entry fees are pegged at 490 euros. The Junior section, for 1^st time licence holders, is enlarged to include 1600 8 valve machinery.

 

Class winners at the Cahir prizegiving included Frank Kelly/Peter Kavanagh for best 2 wheel drive. Stephen Moore/Tony McHugh took GpN.  Alan Dineen won Cl.1, Michael Nevin Cl.2, Clement Lonergan Cl.3, Ray Benskin Cl.4, John McCarthy Cl.6, Pat O’Connell Cl.7. Ashley McAdoo won the Juniors.

 

The new Co. Down rally is on course for the 26^th November, with the forestry commission repairing some storm damage to the Slieve Donard forest this week. Entries for this new event, which is tipped for inclusion in the NI Championship next season, include Craig Bennett in his Focus WRC, and Glens of Antrim Rally winner Sean Devine in his Impreza WRC.

 

This Saturday (19^th Nov), Newry and Mourne MC is running the Gullion Stages rally over the asphalt tracks of the Camlough and Slieve Gullion stages. The event is the final round of the Tracker series and top seeds include Norman Armstrong and  Alistair Cochrane in their Escorts, Letterkenny’s Paul Gallagher in his Corolla and Mark Doyle in his Peugeot.

 

Tralee ’s John Kearney became a new name on the Irish rally winner’s record book when he took his Escort to an impressive win on last weekends Bio-Tech backed Kerry Mini Stages Winter Rally. Of special significance for 26 year old Kearney and his co-driver Denis O’Connell was winning the Donal O’Flaherty Memorial Trophy.

 

Clonakilty brothers Kevin and Martin Kelleher brought their Lancer into 2^nd on the Banna Beach based Kerry event, with Alan Ring/Derek Brannigan 3^rd in their GpN Impreza. Ring’s result earned him enough points to clinch the Top Part West Coast Championship. He actually tied with Noel Redmond at the top of the points table, and got the nod on a count-back.

 

Redmond had been favourite for the title and was running at No1 on the road in Kerry, driving Adrian McElvaney’s Impreza. Despite the blue skies on the rally, the roads were patchily slippy and caught out many drivers, including Redmond, who put the GpA machine off the road on the two opening stages and eventually finished 22^nd.

 

The Kerry event was also the final round of the Ka Motions Championship, and Mark Buckley finished strongly to take maximum points on the rally and win the title. Sharon Power gave Buckley a race for the title, although her cause was not helped by a puncture in Kerry, the Waterford lady finishing runner up. Interestingly, Mark had to hire a Ka for this final round, having rolled his own example within sight of the finish of the last stage on the Cork ‘20’. 

 

 

Cavan’s Patrick Elliot has upgraded his Impreza WRC to Derek McGarrity’s Impreza WRC S10 example. Patrick, a former National GpN champion was at one point leading this year’s Dunlop National series but was knocked back by a couple of small accidents, and then sidelined for several events when he suffered from shingles. Elliott observed “I see the S10 as my best way forward. I felt over the last couple of stages on the Fastnet that we were going hard but we were 2s a mile slower than Breen’s Focus WRC. Hopefully the S10 can change that but I know it needs full commitment”.  Elliott’s main target next year will be the Dunlop National Championship.

 

Former Tarmac Champion McGarrity is fairly non-committal about next year’s Tarmac Championship, which is being sponsored once again by Pirelli tyres. Speaking from his Glengormley car/helicopter business, McGarrity said. “To tell you the truth, I had cooled a bit about rallying, but now I feel I would like to give the Tarmac a real go again next year. It all depends on the deal. I’m testing a new Impreza S11 in a couple of weeks. We’ll see how that goes. But I’ll tell you.\it will\ need to be a very good deal to tempt me down that road!”

 

Brian Patterson.