Irish Notes 20th December ’06.

Former Tarmac Champion Derek McGarrity reckons that it is unlikely he will make the line-up for the 3rd/4th February Galway International. Speaking from his Glengormley base, Derek commented about the injuries to his arm and shoulder sustained in his Manx accident. “It’s not wonderful yet. The doctor has put the arm back into a form of plaster cast. That has to stay on for six weeks, which means it comes off the week before Galway. In reality, I don’t think Galway will happen for me. But the Circuit (which Derek has won three times), is 100% on. I’m starting this oxygen therapy as well. I’ll try anything.”

Derek, whose wife Michelle gave birth to their third child, Jody, two weeks ago, went on to say, “The red car (Impreza WRC S11) which we crashed on the Manx is fully repaired. It has been properly converted to RHD by Prodrive”. Derek did not actually say he would be driving that particular car next season, but he did say that if he did have another accident, he wanted the left shoulder/arm on the inside, away from the door! He would not confirm or deny what he would be driving, but admitted that it could be an Impreza WRC S12, a Focus WRC, or one of a number of older Subarus from his workshop!.

Letterkenny’s Shaun Gallagher is to drive a Citroen C2R2 next season on the FIA Junior Rally Championship. The deal came together very quickly last week. A big factor was the speed which Shaun demonstrated in France with his Peugeot 206 when winning the French Junior 206 Volant Championship. Shaun, a previous Billy Coleman Award winner (in 2002), has done very little rallying in Ireland of late, but did win GpN on his home Donegal International this year. The C2R2 is being built and supplied by Citroen and will compete for a new Citroen backed category within the series. The team is being backed by Sligo man Tommy Mullen through his transport business. Tom Nolan, former Clerk of the Course of Rally Ireland is to act as team manager, as well as look after the route this year for Rally Ireland.

Tralee man Senan Raggett will be Clerk of the Course for the popular Circuit of Kerry in 2007. He plans to bring the rally back to Tralee’s Brandon Hotel. The event was based in Dingle in 2006. The rally was initially to be on an ‘opt-out’ year from the Dunlop National Championship, but in a surprise turnaround the Donegal Harvest organisers have decided to opt-out, which has opened the door for the 1st April Tralee Vintners backed Circuit of Kerry to come back in. It was a toss the coin situation between Kerry and the Tipperary Stonethrowers, with the former getting the nod. The Brandon was the original base for the rally, but hasn’t been used since ‘88/89.

Carlow Motor Club is running the traditional Mondello Rallycross over the Christmas holidays, with last year’s winner Kenny McKinstry as well as Kevin Barrett and Niall Maguire, all in Subarus, just some of the top drivers. Kevin Barrett won the event two years ago and was also one of the stars at the recent marshals day at Mondello. Kevin plans a full rally programme in his Triton Showers backed Impreza WRC S11, taking in the Dunlop National series, as well as the Donegal International, Rally Ireland and possibly Rally Germany.

Early news of driver/car changes for the 2007 season, still to be confirmed, include:-Stephen Murphy getting a new Impreza WRC S11, Patrick Elliott changing his S11 for a new one, Noel Redmond getting a new S11, Donie O’Sullivan getting a slightly older S11, and Paddy White moving from an Impreza WRC to a Focus WRC.
George Tracey is to set compete on the Mondello Christmas event with his Peugeot 206 WRC. Dubliner George has invited his friend, Belgian Freddy Loix, over to also drive the Peugeot at Mondello. In addition, former WRC star Freddy is tipped to be driving from Sligo to Stormont, as an evaluation exercise for Rally Ireland, in relation to a possible Superspecial. Tracey would definitely not confirm the latter part of this story.

Castlerock GP Dessie Nutt flew off to Kenya immediately after winning the Killarney Historic, where he performed a testing role for the Francis Tuthill equipe, in preparation for next year’s East African Safari Classic.

Eugene Donnelly, Kenny McKinstry and Jim Harrison were just a few of the top drivers, which also included GpN exponents Alan Ring and Willie Fannin, who were due to test the latest Prodrive Subaru WRC S12 at Cooley Mountain, just as we were closing for press. Depending on the result of that test, several pieces of the Tarmac Championship jigsaw dove together for next year.

Eugene Donnelly did confirm, even before the test, that he has done a deal with Prodrive for an S12, and in his own words ‘I’ve done the official handshake, signed the cheque!” Three times Tarmac Champion Eugene went on to say, “Prodrive has been extremely positive and I see this as an opportunity to work with a World Rally Championship team and drive an ’06 works car. Some people will ask why I didn’t go for an S11, a proven and fantastic car. Well, I want to go to Rally Ireland with an S12, with passive diffs, not with S11 active diffs. I’ll see how we go against the world championship drivers. Nobody can say I will have any advantage. Besides, Prodrive isn’t going to produce a slower car than the S11. I know they haven’t had a great year on the World Championship. I see it as a challenge, to make it a competitive car on Irish tarmac, and a privilege to drive it. Somebody said to me, only half joking, that Prodrive can’t afford to give me a bad car, after me beating them for three years in an old Corolla!” Derek McGeehan will continue to look after all the engineering on Eugene’s car, with a Prodrive engineer looking after the data input. Eugene’s test time with the car was cut short because of an engine problem, and a new unit was fitted. Eugene did a few runs with Pasi Hagstrom co-driving and then Eugene asked Derek McGeehan to ‘sit-in’. Eugene didn’t adjust the suspension settings, but did fit a set of his own tyres, and altered the diff settings and the brake bias, and was pretty pleased with the car considering the short time he was in it.

National GpN Champion Alan Ring also had a run in the WRC and said, “It was amazing, although I had the setting sun, left hand drive and shiny tar, but still the car did a lot of the work for you, a constant surge, the same as the GpN car in 1st gear, but this was all the way through six gears! The brakes, gears, handling, everything was so good.” Still, Alan is sticking with GpN for 2007 and has just taken delivery of a new Impreza from Prodrive. He says that “There are many very small changes, but the main things are moving to 18” wheels, plus a mild update in the suspension and the turbo”. Ian Barrett has now ordered a new GpN Impreza for the 2007 Dunlop National series as well.M-Sport had a very successful Open Day at Rallyschool Ireland outside Scotsown in Monaghan to herald the launch of their new Fiesta Sporting Trophy Ireland 2007. Roman Kresta spent hours giving potential competitors high speed trips round the very slippy and foggy circuit in one of the 2006 Fiestas. Next year’s car is basically the same, but will have modified front wheel bearings and driveshafts. There will be substantial prize money, and five scores will count from the seven proposed rallies, five asphalt and two forest. The Fiestas will compete on just one day of the Tarmac Internationals. The rounds will be, Galway International, Circuit of Ireland, Killarney Lakes, Donegal International, Cork Forestry, Enniskillen Lakeland Forestry and Cork ‘20’.

Just some of the drivers present at the test included young Alastair Fisher, Stephen Wright, Jonathan MacHale, Colin Flanaghan, William Mavitty, Clubmans Champion Liam Regan, Kyle Orr and John McCay. All seemed very impressed with the car, the format of the new series, and the prize fund. Judging by the turnout, there will probably be about six drivers start the Irish series, with more to come later.
A slight difficulty initially for the young Irish drivers will be to get their competition licences updated for the 2-litre car. Ivan Fisher and his son Alastair ordered a complete new car from M-Sport. Ivan commented, “As far as we can see the reliability issues with the earlier cars have been sorted out. Malcolm (Wilson) has had an input recently and the cars should be good now. We don’t know if our new car will be ready for Galway in time. We will just have to wait and see.” Andrew Wheatley from M-Sport was on hand to look after technicalities, while Ciara Conlan will co-ordinate the Irish series as well as the British. Stella Boyles, who was looking after the Fiestas, has just had her baby, a boy, fairly premature, so let’s pray that both will be well.

TOP CALIBRE COMPETITORS AT KIRKISTOWN

Former Production World Rally Champion Niall McShea is the latest driver to confirm he will be competing on the Sàturday 30th December Rally of the 1000 Entries at Kirkistown. Niall will be driving his brother’s potent Ford Orion RWD.
Kieran Shaw is giving up his place in the list to allow NI Champion Kevin Lynch an entry. Although it is the Rally of the 1000 Entries, just 120 will be allowed to start on the day, and there is already a reserve list. Vodka Kick supremo Steve Perez has put in a ‘courtesy’ entry. Interestingly, the bidding for co-driving seats took a real upsurge just before the closing date last Friday and over £20,000 was pledged. The winning bidders will be announced shortly, along with the full seeding, on www.magherafeltmotorclub.co.uk.

Cork’s Darren McCarthy is the winner of the draw to co-drive for Eugene Donnelly. When he got the phone call, McCarthy, normally seen in the organising team of rallies like West Cork and the Cork Forestry, thought it was someone winding him up! Naturally he can’t wait to get to Kirkistown!

Top seeds will be:- 1 Gareth MacHale (Focus WRC): 2 Eugene Donnelly (Corolla WRC): 3 Gwyndaf Evans (Lancer): 4 Niall McShea (Ford Orion): 5 Kenny McKinstry (Impreza WRC): 6 Charlie Donnelly (Skoda WRC) 7 Kevin Lynch (Subaru Impreza WRC): 8 Glen Allen (Corolla WRC) 9 Denis Biggerstaff (Impreza WRC): 10 Kevin Barrett (Impreza WRC).

The overall aim of the rally, apart from having a good day out, is to provide funds to enable Christopher Rogers, paralysed in a rally accident, travel to China for specialised treatment. As an extension of that, money from the rally is being used to kick-start the new Rally Specialist Medical Assistance Fund, to help in any future contingencies. Over £70,000 has been raised so far, with the aim being to make £100,000.

The rally will start at 10.00 on Saturday 30th December. There will be six special stages, the final two very short, and proceedings should be wound up just after 4.00pm, before darkness sets in.

What with motorbike road racer Robert Dunlop and his co-driver for the day, Pamela Ballantine, doing course car in a Ford Escort, and drivers of the calibre of World Rally star Gareth MacHale, Rally Champion brothers Eugene and Charlie Donnelly, former British Champion Gwyndaf Evans, former World Production Champion Niall McShea, NI Champion Kevin Lynch. It just goes on and on and is shaping up to be a great day at Kirkistown on Saturday 30th.

Further drivers who should send the sparks flying include Monaghan’s Dessie Keenan along with Camillus Bradley, Greg McCormack and Trevor Moore all in Mk2 Escorts. Garry Jennings is making the trip up from Fermanagh to compete in his Lancer and Banbridge girl Emma McKinstry will also be driving a Lancer.
There will be a charge at the gate on the day of the rally by the Kirkistown management, so any donations to the fund should kindly be made at the hospitality marquee in the circuit.

Late stories include Billy Coleman receiving the Special Hall of Fame Award, which is very special and of course timely as Ireland moves into WRC arena. On a the down-side, Sammy Hamill’s interview with Kris Meeke ‘packing the fiddle’ regarding the WRC, is a sobering tale. Hopefully things will change for Kris. It would be a shame to lose him from top flight rallying.

Finally for now, best wishes to all for the Festive Season and on into 2007. Many thanks to the many many people who helped us over the past year. Our thoughts go as well to those who have had misfortune or bad times through 2006.

Brian Patterson.