Irish Notes 2^nd April 2007.

The Ulster Automobile officials in charge of the Easter Rally have received a letter of thanks from the parents of John Ferris. They live on the Craig Hill special stage, on Waterworks Road, and have planned a big Easter birthday party for their handicapped son John. If the stage had run in its original planned format, that would have spoiled the party, so without hesitation the UAC re-routed the stage.

Brian McGillin took his Hyundai WRC to an impressive win on last Saturday’s Omagh Spring Rally through the Tyrone forests.  It was a busy weekend for McGillin who was also Secretary of the Rally.  Kevin O’Kane was 2^nd. David Crossen 3^rd and won Group N.  Errol Clarke was 4^th, Raymond Mason 5^th and James Gillen 6^th in his Subaru. Frank Kelly was best of the 2 wheel drive competitors. 

Omagh’s Paul Barrett, the current BTRDA Silver Star Champion, unfortunately was hospitalised last Saturday when the front wheel of his Escort caught a bale on the Spring Rally and Paul sustained a broken wrist.  Paul’s brother will take up the entry on this weekend’s Easter national rally.

Tarmac Championship Group N points leader James Foley starts the Easter International with something of a handicap, having broken his hand in a quad bike accident.  James is having difficulty changing gear, but is going ahead with the rally anyway, and is receiving some very special treatment to alleviate the pain.

Letterkenny girl Toni Kelly is competing on the Easter International in her Honda Civic Type R. After Easter, as well as finishing off her exams, Toni is flying out to Milan to get ‘seat-fitted’ for the very latest Type R. The new car is being built for her by JAS Motorsport. This will be one of the first right hand drive competition examples of the new Honda.

Former Champion Dessie Nutt is leaving his Porsche 911 in the garage this Easter and instead is competing on the Historic section of the Circuit in his Mini Cooper S, with his son Michael co-driving for the first time. Dessie’s regular co-driver, Geraldine McBride, is sitting with another multi champion, Mervyn Johnston, in his Mini Cooper S.

Denis Biggerstaff is competing on the International section of the Easter event rather than the NI Championship section, the National. Former Champion Denis reckons that his non-finish at Kirkistown has wrecked his Championship hopes, so he may as well compete on the International section, which will probably give him cleaner roads. Denis also feels that he will not worry too much about the Championship, and will tackle the Killarney Lakes and Donegal events. Glenn Allen is the current NI series points leader, ahead of Stephen Moore.

Johnny McKenna has switched to an ex Karamjit Singh, Mellors Elliott Group N Lancer for the Easter International.

Terry McGonigle has moved from his Group N Lancer to an ex Seamus Devine Impreza WRC. Terry has had a test session in the car and is most impressed, especially with the braking capabilities of the world rally car.

Triple Circuit of Ireland winner Derek McGarrity was due to go into hospital for an operation 2 weeks ago but that was deferred, so Derek is now going into the RVH in Belfast on Good Friday, for corrective surgery following his Manx Rally accident.

Draperstown man Christopher Rogers, who was paralysed in a rally accident 5 years ago, travelled to China with his mother Rose last weekend to start the  specialised treatment that hopefully will make his life easier.  He is expected to be in hospital in Bejing for about 5 weeks. Funding for the trip is of course coming from the new Rally Specialist Medical Assistance Fund, arising from the Rally of the 1000 Entries and a lot of hard work by motor clubs and individuals which raised £100,000.  Cahal Rogers, one of the prime movers behind the new fund and also Christopher’s cousin, is competing on the Easter International in the ex Connor McCloskey GpN Lancer Evo9.

Derek McGeehan, the engineer who looks after current Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly’s Impreza WRC S12 reported that they made further progressive changes to the suspension and Eugene tested the car last Friday and was very pleased with the results.

Monaghan man Mick McQuaid has been a front runner in Mk2 Escorts for many years, and last Sunday was quite a red letter day as his 2 sons John and Gerard were also competing in Mk2 Escorts on the Circuit of Kerry Stages Rally.

Kenneth and Claire Hogan won the Junior section of the Circuit of Kerry Stages in their Civic, while Barry Ryan/Donal Falvey were 2^nd in their Escort, with Gary Dineen/TJ Murphy 3^rd in another Escort.

Aaron MacHale has moved into the lead of the Dunlop Championship following his 2^nd place on the Circuit of Kerry last Sunday. Aaron was annoyed at a last stage incident when he stopped his Focus to check that Noel Redmond was alright, when the latter crashed his new Impreza N12, and then Glenn Allen, who said he saw Redmond and his co-driver Ger Healey out of the Subaru, barged on clipping Aaron’s Focus in the process. This also distorted the times of course, but that was quickly sorted out by the Kerry officials. Winner Patrick Elliott commented at the end, “It was a challenging rally, I was pleased to have won. It’s a pity Ray Breen went out on the first stage, I haven’t had a straightforward race with him since last year. Everything on the rally today has to be tempered of course by the awful road accident where three young men were killed.”

Despite a broken gearbox mounting in his Citroen C2R2 Letterkenny’s Shaun Gallagher finished first in the “Rookie” class on the FIA Junior Rally Championship in Portugal last weekend. Gallagher reported. “It was our first gravel event in the car so I was a little unsure how we would handle it, but it all went really well. Clive and I are delighted at maintaining our place as top rookies in the championship and adding to our overall points.”  Shaun finished 7th in the JRC and was highest placed Citroen in the category.

Brian Patterson.