Irish Notes 10^th July 2006.

   

One of Eugene Donnelly’s Corolla WRC’s has been sold to a customer in Tenerife. The car (last year’s Donegal winning car, ‘442’ as it is fondly referred to by the team), is crated up and awaiting despatch to Tenerife. This leaves one Corolla WRC for Eugene and his brother Charlie to share for the rest of the season.

 

Don Wilmont, the Pirelli Tarmac Championship manager, confirmed following a meeting on the Jim Clark Rally that the series will have the same 8 rounds again next year, and that the Tarmac and the British series will work together to allow crews from each series to compete on the common rounds, Jim Clark, Manx and Ulster, and also to raise the profile of both Championships.

 

Current Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly now has 62 points in this season’s  Pirelli backed Tarmac series, with Eamonn Boland on 51 and Derek McGarrity 45. Colm Murphy moves further ahead of Roy White in the race for GpN supremacy. Interestingly, although Shaun Gallagher and Philip Morrow retired from the Jim Clark following accidents, they registered for Super Rally and scored some points. Seamus Leonard, who was leading the Tarmac contingent on the rally, retired with turbo trouble but didn’t register for Super Rally and drops back from his joint lead with Colm Murphy.

 

Enfield’s Tom Holton retired his Celica a few stages from the end of last weekend’s BHV Expo Rally in Holland after the turbo blew when lying in the top ten.

 

Regulations out this week for the Philip White tyres backed Ulster Rally show the rally is again based in Armagh, with a Friday evening, all day Saturday format. The event is a counter in the Tarmac and British Championships, while the National part is a round of the Prima Motorsport MSA Asphalt Championship.

 

This weekend’s Sligo Stages Rally is a round of both the Dunlop National Championship and the Border series. Patrick Elliott in his Subaru is the points leader in the National series, with Charlie Donnelly (Corolla WRC) his main opposition in the fight for the title, while in the class based Border Championship Brian Armstrong (Escort), Jason Currid (Sunbeam), Michael Conlon and Russell Woods, both in Escorts, are looking strong.

 

The entry for the 22^nd/23^rd July Cork Forestry is filling up rapidly, with last year’s winner Glenn Allen as well as McAuley Trailers Championship leader John McCarthy, also in a Corolla WRC, two of the leading seeds. Neil Weaver, the champion elect on the 1400 BTRDA series is a welcome addition in his remarkably rapid Corsa.

 

Derek McGeehan made a rapid retreat from engineering Eugene Donnelly’s Corolla on the Jim Clark to get back to Northern Ireland in time to win the Lough Neagh Stages Rally. Co-driven by Charlie Donnelly, McGeehan finished ahead of Kieran Graffin (Impreza WRC P2000) with James Gillen in his GpA Impreza 3^rd.

 

Brian Patterson.