Irish Notes 28th August '06.

 

Kerry man Dermot Hanafin, now based in Yorkshire, is in the throes of pulling together a pretty sensational deal through his FitzSamuel Insurance concern to bring both Marko Martin and Mark Higgins to compete on the 29^th Sept – 1^st Oct Cork ‘20’. The duo will drive a pair of Impreza WRC’s, which should add a whole new dimension to the final round of the Pirelli Tarmac series.

 

Eugene Donnelly plans to go straight to the Hellfire Rally following this weekend’s Ulster Rally.  Eugene has promised to compete on the Hellfire near Oldcastle in Co. Cavan in a Celica 185.  His co-driver will be Danny McGee of Esker Bus & Coach of Kilbeggan.  This is Eugene ’s principal sponsor.  On the cards for next year is a new car for Eugene, possibly a Subaru WRC but a Focus WRC is still a possibility.  He hopes to compete on the Tarmac Championship and also Rally Ireland plus a couple of European events.   Eugene commented. “Really I shouldn’t be moving up to this level but I feel I have to take the opportunity. I really want to drive the latest world rally car and think that they won’t go on forever, there will be a reduction and I will have missed the chance”.  Last year’s Hellfire winner Andrew Brown in his Escort and James Foley in his rapid Lancer are amongst the top entries for Sunday’s event. The rally celebrates its 21^st anniversary this year.  

 

Latest news on Eugene is that he will now not be competing on the Hellfire but will be performing OO duties – in order not to deprive the local drivers of any results.

 

Darren Gass has planned a test session this week in conjunction with Roman Kresta to set up the new Rega suspension on his M-Sport works Fiesta. Darren has found the handling a bit wayward so far and hopes that the test on home asphalt will settle the car for this weekend’s Ulster Rally. Darren’s father Maurice meanwhile is hoping for better things from his Fabia WRC than its Lurgan Park outing where recalcitrant fuel pumps were the reason for an early bath. Many of the Ulster stages are close to the Gass business, Killycarn Sand and Gravel, at Loughgilly, so Maurice and Darren are keen to have a good run this time.

 

Entries for the 17^th September N.E.Stages at Carrickmacross are coming in fast, with last year’s winner Adrian McElvaney in his GpA Impreza, as well as James Cullen, Tom Holton and Pat Donegan already in. The event is classified as a ‘Mini Stages’, so WRC machinery is not eligible. There are some entries still available. Tel. 086 3551759.

 

Loughrea’s Martin Ward picked his BMW M3 up from an English tuning company a few weeks ago where it was being fitted with a new engine and was planning to bring it home via the London Irish MC launch celebrations.  In the small hours of the morning George Tracey decided he must have this BMW and bought it from Martin!  The latter was forced to drive a Mk2 Escort on his home Galway Summer Rally last weekend.

 

This weekend’s Killarney Forestry event is the final round of the McCauley Trailers Championship.  John McCarthy has already won the overall title so the spotlight switches to the battle for 2 wheel drive supremacy with Frank Kelly, Seamus O’Connell and Danny McEvoy the main players.  The Group N title has also to be decided with Brian McGillin and Owen Murphy tying at the top of the tree and with Kevin Duggan just 1 point away.  Alan Ring is driving a gravel specification Prodrive Impreza N12, the tarmac star making his annual trip through the forests on his home event. The rally is based in Castleisland.

 

Rory Galligan hopes to take his works Group N Lancer to his home Hellfire Rally outside Oldcastle next Sunday if the car finishes the Ulster Rally in one piece. Rory’s wife Treasa will co drive.  He feels that after 3 bad years on the Ulster Rally perhaps it will come good this time. He likes the Ulster roads and said “So does Mark Higgins of course!”  About his successful trip to Rally Finland he went on to say “it was great to be there, quite a privilege, I tried to keep out of trouble and stay in the middle of the road and drive as slow as I could but still keep a good pace.  The stages were quite rough in places, but it was a fantastic experience”. 

 

There is now some doubt about Garry Jennings driving an Impreza WRC on the Ulster Rally.  Garry really wants to do his home International in the Subaru but the regulations would appear to preclude a competitor changing his class and group when he has already submitted the entry.  The decision is outside the rally organisers scope and will be a matter for the Stewards of the rally who will not meet until just before the event starts. It is believed that Guy Wilks is in a similar situation in that he wants to switch from Super 1600 to a WRC.  An extra difficulty for Guy is that he is not registered for the Tarmac Championship which is a requirement for driving a world rally car on any of the rounds. 

 

Latest on Garry is that he may after all get running in an Impreza WRC.  If he gets the consent in writing of all the leading drivers this will go some way to solving the difficulty. There was a precedent set by Daniel Carlsson on the Swedish Rally.

 

The Junior category on the Galway Summer Rally was won by Patrick Cunningham and his co driver Shane O’Brien in their Civic.  Kevin Gallagher (Corsa) was 2^nd and Derek Deane 3^rd in his Mk2 Escort.

 

Brian Patterson.