Irish
Notes
3rd April ‘06
Tarmac
Champion Eugene Donnelly was on hand on last
weekend’s Circuit of Kerry Rally, performing
‘gravel note’ duties for his brother Charlie.
Charlie’s 3rd place allowed him to stay
in the lead of the Dunlop National series. Although
told by his doctor to keep a couple of weeks off
work to rest his back Eugene was in fine form
and said at the finish of the rally. “I can’t
wait to get at the Circuit. It’s a big thorn in my
heel not having finished it for the last 2 years.
We’re going testing later this week. We have
changed the set up again to what it was at the start
of the year.”
The
Circuit stages are mostly over the bumpy
Sperrins
Mountain
roads, territory that
Eugene
grew up on, but he was adamant this should really
pose no advantage.
Gareth
MacHale was also doing gravel note duties in Kerry
for his brother Aaron. Gareth reckons his priority
now is the Rally of
Argentina
. Aaron had revised the suspension settings for his
Corolla WRC and seemed a lot happier with the car
and was well in contention early in the rally but
eventually finished 7th following some
intercom problems.
Eugene
Meegan finished top 2 wheel drive and 26th
o/a on the
Galway
opener of this season’s Pirelli Tarmac series.
Eugene, along with his co-driver Paul McGee from
Mayo, has built a new Honda Civic Type R for the
Circuit of
Ireland
and hopes to extend their advantage in the
championship.
17
year old Alastair Fisher has won his class on his
last three outings on consecutive weekends,
Bishopscourt, Bradleys Quarry and Trotters Quarry in
Connacht
. Alastair, a nephew of the late Bertie Fisher, has
clinched a deal for Pirelli support for his Corsa,
continuing a long family association with the tyre
giant. His
next outing will be on this weekend’s Fivemiletown
forestry rally, and his main aim this weekend is
contesting the NI Stage Championship.
Well
know competitor Phillip Shaw reports that plans for
the Tour of the Sperrins Rally, round 3 of the NI
Championship, are well advanced. The rally switches
this year from forest to asphalt stages and Phillip
has laid out 4 interesting tarmac stages, every one
done twice, all within 10 miles of Magherafelt.
Last
year’s winner Robbie McGurk is top seed for this
Saturday’s Fivemiletown Forestry Rally and he will
have Martin McGrath co-driving in his Lancer.
Hillsborough businessman Martin bid for the
co-driving seat at Philip Morrow’s fund-raising
evening in Carryduff. The rally, run by Omagh Motor
Club, has built up a reputation for good forest
stages as well as being a fun event and has an
interesting entry.
The
Killarney Rally of the Lakes, round 3 of the Pirelli
Tarmac Championship, has a tough route planned this
year with several new stages, as well as many
classics including the Molls Gap stage out of
Killarney which will run as planned despite some
rock blasting work being undertaken.
New York
based Loughrea man Liam Egan was driving Eugene
Donnelly’s spare Corolla WRC on last weekend’s
Circuit of Kerry Rally.
Despite being on unfamiliar territory he
improved through the afternoon stages as his
confidence grew and he finished 57th.
Kerry man Sean Moriarty co-drove and is
flying back to New York with Liam this week to help
him with the New York National rally where Egan will
drive a Group A Lancer with Paddy Brennan,
originally from Cavan, co-driving. The rally is 90
miles north-west of NYC and comprises asphalt
stages.
Barry
Meade and his co driver Colin Fitzgerald continued
their good run when they took their Escort to a 19s
victory in the Junior section of the Circuit of
Kerry. Pat Cunningham/Shane O’Brien were 2nd
in their Civic and Thomas O’Keefe/Donal Keane 3rd
in an Escort.
Emily
O’Mahony reverted from her GpN Impreza to a Ford
Puma on last weekend’s Kerry rally and won her
class. Further class winners included Mark Alcorn
(Corolla TC), Maurice Moffett (Starlet), David
McNulty (Escort Cosworth), Drew Hunter (Escort), Ken
O’Neill (Puma), David Roe (Civic), Liam Delaney
(Civic), Kieran Daly (Focus), Pat Ryan (Escort) and
Mike Walsh (Escort).
Regards:
Brian Patterson
