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Irish
Notes 2nd Jan '06
Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly has decided to use
his Corolla WRC to contest this year's Pirelli
Tarmac Championship, as well as Rally Ireland.
Eugene tested a Prodrive Subaru Impreza WRC S10
before Christmas, and commented, "I was really
impressed with the Subaru. The balance of the car is
brilliant. You could put it through the eye of a
needle. It may not have quite the power of the
Focus, but it is a great package. However, there is
more to come from the Corolla, both the engine and
the suspension, and basically we are pretty far down
the road with it as regards 2006. The following year
could be a different story, and don't be surprised
if we go for Subaru. That would fall in with a lot
of our plans."
The door is open for Kris Meeke to have another
crack at securing the Junior WRC title, as a seat is
available for him in a Citroen C2 to be run by PH
Sport, with current JWRC champion Dani Sordo as well
as Julien Pressac in the same team.
Seamus Leonard has been within a whisker of
clinching GpN on the Tarmac Championship, but
despite winning the category on many of Ireland's
International rallies, hasn't yet managed to achieve
the title.. That may change this year as the Omagh
man has secured a deal to drive the third 'works'
Lancer Evo 9. This is a sister car to the ones built
by ADR for Mitsubishi UK, to be driven by Evo
Challenge winner Ryan Champion and the as yet
unnamed works driver, thought to be Rory Galligan.
This is as yet unconfirmed. It is considered likely
that David Higgins may get some assistance towards a
drive in the Production WRC. 39 year old Leonard has
done a deal with Pirelli tyres, and his priority
will be the Tarmac series, with Gerry McVeigh
co-driving. Stan Harper will mostly look after the
Lancer on event.
Former British and Irish Tarmac GpN Champion Trevor
Cathers has a new Lancer Evo 9 coming, and plans to
contest the 4th/5th February Galway International,
opening round of the Pirelli Tarmac Championship.
Cathers has 'down-sized' his refrigerated truck
business, and is currently deeply involved in a
house-building development at Monaghan in
conjunction with Willie John Dolan. The latter has a
new GpN Subaru being delivered in time for Galway.
Well known RTE radio sports commentator John Kenny
begins a series of programmes stating this Friday
evening at 8 pm, entitled 'Dirty Dozen Ireland's
Motorsports Legends' and featuring drivers as
diverse as Paddy Hopkirk through Eddie Jordan to
Austin MacHale.
Kenny McKinstry sported all his old flair when he
took an Impreza WRC to a narrow victory over Brian
Murphy, also in a Subaru, at the traditional post
Christmas Mondello Rallysprint. Previous winner
Kevin Barrett (Impreza WRC) was third. George
Tracey was 4th in his Peugeot 206 WRC, David James
5th in his recently acquired Focus WRC. Emma
McKinstry (Impreza WRC) indicated all the signs of
emulating her father when she took 6th overall.
Donagh Kelly took his GpA Lancer to victory on the
Turkey Run Rally at Aghadowey between Christmas and
the New Year. Sean Devine was 2nd in his Impreza WRC
and Eugene Donnelly's engineer Derek McGeehan 3rd,
driving Eugene's Corolla WRC. Paul McKenna from
Draperstown won GpN in his Lancer. Conditions for
the first few stages were very icy and Donagh Kelly
built up an early lead, with Devine and McGeehan
being cautious. Rain arrived during the day making
the conditions a bit more predictable and Devine set
some fastest times, but couldn't quite overhaul
Kelly, who won by 4 seconds with McGeehan a further
1sec back.
Ballinamallard's Garry Jennings was due to lend his
Gp N Lancer to his co-driver Rory Kennedy for the
Aghadowey rally, but damaged the clutch when he was
doing his good Samaritan bit by taking the car
around the local schools on the run up to Christmas!
Gary is now almost certain to tackle both the
British Championship as well as the Tarmac series in
2006.
Finally for now our deepest condolences go to Tarmac
Champion co-driver Paul Kiely, whose father Tom died
on New Year's Eve. Tom Kiely was a great follower of
rallying and backed Paul every inch of the way. We
extend our sympathy as well to Tom's widow and all
the family.
Brian Patterson.
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© 2006 www.rallynews.net
(Patterson Agencies). All rights reserved. Unauthorised duplication
is a violation of applicable laws.
03/01/06 12:26
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