IRISH NOTES 2^ND OCTOBER 2006

 

Austin MacHale confirmed at the end of the Cork '20' that he is taking a back seat from competing, and will concentrate his rally efforts on backing his sons Gareth and Aaron, Gareth on the world series and Aaron on the Irish Tarmac. Austin won his first International Rally in Galway in 1985 and has been at the forefront of the action ever since. His presence on a leaderboard always added an extra dimension, a real presence and electricity, to every rally he entered, but at least he will still be on the scene in his managerial role.

Peadar Hurson was on the reserve list for the Cork 20 Rally but opted instead to enter his Subaru WRC on the Donegal Harvest Rally.  The event is normally a round of the Dunlop National Championship but this year is just a counter in the Border C/ship series. Indications are that the Harvest will have one of its strongest entries ever, which is probably due to the fact that it is using some famous Donegal stages including Fanad and Kindrum.

 

Steve Perez was lying just inside the top 20 for most of the Cork 20 Rally but came through strongly towards the end.  He joked that the slippy stages in Cork and so much sideways driving in his Focus WRC should serve him in good stead for the Trackrod and RAC rallies, where he will drive his Lancer Stratos. Perez will be co-driven by M-Sport’s Peter Martin, who raised a lot of money for the RNLI when he completed the Great North run last Sunday. Perez thought at one point he was going to be forced to retire from the Cork 20 because, after leaving service and on his way up to stage 12, he discovered that the oil cap had been left off the engine.  He proceeded slowly up to the stage where he mysteriously found a suitable oil cap.  What really played into his hands was that the stage was cancelled due to Nesbitt’s accident, so he incurred no lateness penalties.

 

Patrick Cunningham/Shane O’Brien won the Junior section of the Cork 20 in their Honda Civic. Paul Fitzgerald was 2^nd in an Escort, and Stephen McGrath 3^rd in his Corsa.

 

Kevin O’Kane has acquired the ex Michael Barrable Impreza S6.  This is the car that was driven by the late Richard Burns in Finland , where he set a fastest time and then crashed over the flying finish. The car has been upgraded with paddle gear change. 

 

Ray Breen was lying 8^th with 2 stages to go in Cork but then his Focus WRC developed a fly by wire throttle problem and he eventually finished 23^rd.

 

An interesting angle to Guy Wilks’ accident is that his gravel note crew couldn’t get through that particular section of stage and were forced to miss out a little loop, because a farmer in a red Toyota Avensis decided to stage his own personal protest and blocked the road, This was not against the rally, but because of a local objection about a phone mast or a dump, his placard wasn’t quite clear!  Some gravel note crews forced their way through and marked the chicane where Guy crashed as particularly slippy. 

 

Former Cork Forestry Clerk of the Course John Quinn has bought one of the new Citroen C2 R2 kits from Hursts in Belfast , along with a donor car, and plans a mixed programme of events for 2007.

 

Brian Patterson.