IRISH
NOTES 27TH MARCH 2006
In
respect of his FIA seeding Gareth MacHale is at
No.1 for the forthcoming Meteor Electrical
Circuit of Ireland with 3 times winner Derek
McGarrity at No.2 and current Pirelli Tarmac
Champion Eugene Donnelly at No.3.
Cork 20 winner Tim McNulty is at 4 in his
new Impreza WRC S11.
Derek
McGarrity was testing his Impreza WRC S11 in
Cavan last week and pronounced himself well
pleased with the car and feels that the Circuit
of Ireland stages should suit his style a lot
better than the slippy roads on the first tarmac
round in Galway.
Former
Production World Rally Champion Niall McShea
heads the list for the National part of the
rally, Niall down to drive a Ford Orion.
Paul Gallagher is at No.2 in his Corolla
and Damien Gallagher at 3 in his Escort.
The National part of the rally also
incorporates the Historics and top seed is
Manxman Adrian Kermode with Maurice Beckett
co-driving in a Porsche 911.
This
weekend’s Circuit of Kerry Rally has moved
back to its Dingle base and is using some of the
classic stages such as Slea Head, Brandon Creek
and Minard Castle.
Current Dunlop National Champion Ray
Breen heads a very strong entry list, the first
11 cars all being state of the art World Rally
machines.
Young
Michael Curran is the current Dunlop National
Group N Champion and he is listed at No.12 in
Kerry but will not be able to make the start.
Bangor man Michael commented. “We’re
building a new car, an Evo 9, and it won’t be
ready for a while. We want to try a dog box for
the first time. The aim is to compete on some of
the Tarmac Championship events as well as some
of the National events which are close at hand.
My co-driver Fabian McShane would not have been
available this weekend anyway as his wife is
expecting twins!”.
Top
names entered for the Midland Multi Stages Rally
on 9th April include Sean Gallagher who is
making his first outing since his Impreza WRC
was destroyed by fire on last year’s
Sthonethrowers Rally. George Cullen, Adrian
McElvaney and Martin Doherty in their respective
WRCs have also entered.
The event is a round of the Sleator Opel
c/ship and Rory Galligan’s 205 series.
HQ is the Abbey Hotel, Roscommon and
entries are still available.
Clerk of the Course is Eoin Longworth and
he can be contacted on 086 8179297.
Brian
Patterson
