Irish Notes 22^nd May 2006.

 

 

When Charlie Donnelly and his co-driver Paddy Toner won last weekend’s Sperrins Rally, it was of special significance on several fronts. It was the first time a ‘local’ crew had won the event and the first win for a Skoda WRC on the NI series, of which this was the 3^rd ’06 round.

 

Most interestingly, Paddy Toner was the Clerk of the Course of the very first Sperrins Rally 18 years agao, and Charlie Donnelly was his deputy! Charlie’s brother Eugene was supposed to drive the Skoda on the Sperrins, but some physiotherapy work on his back left him unfit, so Charlie stepped in, albeit with little testing. He found the car very good to drive, and quickly learned to ‘keep it up a gear’ to get the best out of it. Charlie will revert to his Corolla WRC for this weekend’s Cavan Rally.

 

Kevin Lynch was listed as No1 for the Sperrins, having won for the previous two years. Pressure of work dictated optherwise for Lynch, which meant he also lost his lead in the NI Championship. Lynch has put an entry in for the Shell Donegal. Glenn Allen, following his 2^nd place on the Sperrins. now moves into the lead of the NI series, ahead of Raymond Johnston. Charlie Donnelly is not registered, his main target this year the Dunlop National Championship.

 

Limavady’s Richard Hogg (Lancer) has moved into the NI series GpN lead, having won the category on the Sperrins. Martin Elliott lost his points lead when he finished down the order on the Sperrins, his Lancer suffering a stage 1 overshoot and a stage 2 turbo failure.

 

Further GpN stories from the Sperrins were that young local man Connor McCloskey had the huge disappoinment of sliding his Lancer off the road on the first stage.

 

It all went wrong as well for two times Donegal winner James Cullen on the 2^nd. Following a stunning time on stage 1, James caught a car on stage 2, was trying to get past him when a light flashed on his Lancer’s dash and, momentarily distracted, he went straight through a square left, bashing a telegraph pole on the way past.

 

Another local driver, the ultra rapid Johnny McKenna, had massive gearbox problems early on in the Sperrins, but really got going towards the end which leaves him in good form for the trip down to the Cavan Rally. Being a round of the Dunlop series, Cavan has some very hot entries indeed, what with Willie Fannin and Alan Ring in their respective  Impreza N12’s, as well as Kevin Kelleher and P.J.McGrath in Lancers, the latter in the very latest TWG example, and of course there are quite a few more as well. Interestingly, Dunlop GpN Champion Michael Curran has switched to a Skoda WRC for this one.

 

On the subject of GpN, Pirelli Tarmac GpN Champion Garry Jennings is trying to get a deal together to contest the Ypres Rally in Belgium. The event falls just after the Shell Donegal at the end of June, and Garry sees the Ypres event as an attractive different location to take some of his sponosrs.

 

Barry O’Neill at Omagh College (028 82245433) is organising an interesting Motorsports Incident Marshal’s Course, lasting 12 weeks (one evening per week) and covering all aspects of marshalling, with an NVQ Level 2 Certificate the end result.

 

Brian Patterson.