Irish Notes 11^th Sept. ’06

Eugene Donnelly plans to contest the 14^th October  Donegal Harvest Rally, to fulfil a ‘prize drive’ obligation for the Donegal Motor Club. Although Eugene has clinched the Pirelli Tarmac Champions crown for the 3^rd year, he still expects to compete on the final round, the Cork ‘20’ International.

 

Paul Kiely, Eugene’s co-driver, has confirmed that they almost certainly will not be driving a Skoda in Cork, and may or may not be in their faithful Corolla WRC, which could be connected with a visit to Prodrive last week, but Sligo man Kiely was giving nothing more away!

 

Following his sensational debut run in a Subaru WRC to 3^rd place on the Ulster Rally, Ballinamallard’s Garry Jenning’s is planning to continue with the ex-McGarrity/Sleator Impreza and has pencilled in the Donegal Harvest and Cork ‘20’ events for his next two outings.

 

Johnny McKenna, one of the most highly rated GpN drivers in NI, has entered his Lancer in the Plains Rally, the deal coming about through Johnny ’s association with Hankook and Stuart Jones Motorsport.

 

Dave Senior will co-drive for Marko Martin in the FitzSamuel insurance backed  Impreza WRC on the Cork ‘20’ International.

 

Following his 14^th consecutive NI Championship win, Kevin Lynch will this week be waving good-bye for a while to his son Sean who is heading to Hollywood,  USA, to try and find some acting work. Sean is a fine driver in his own right, lying in the top six of the recent Cork Forestry until his Impreza P2000 slipped off the road. Much as he would like to be competing on more rallies, Sean, who is currently attending an arts/acting university in Devon, is determined to follow that career path rather than going into father Kevin’s contracting utilities company at the moment.

 

Charlie Donnelly and Patrick Elliott will renew their rivalry this weekend on the Ennis based  Clare Stages in their quest for Dunlop National Championship supremacy. The rally is also a round of the South East stages series  and Denis Cronin will join the national Championship front runners in his Impreza WRC. Kevin Barrett will debut his Impreza WRC S11 in Clare, so the event should have plenty for the fans to cheer about.

 

This Sunday’s North-East Stages rally, based at Carrickmacross, is a round of the class based Sleator Opel Championship and has a great  cross-section of entries, including Adrian McElvaney (Impreza 555), Tom Holton (Celica), Pat Donegan (Escort) and James Cullen (Lancer N).

Brian Patterson.