Former National Champion Peadar Hurson
was forced to miss last weekend’s Galway
Rally, as he was sidelined by a bout of
influenza. Hurson was ill during the
week before the rally, and got Kris
Meeke to set up his Impreza WRC, but
then when it came to the weekend of the
event, Peadar couldn’t make it. He plans
now a possible run on the St Patricks
weekend West Cork Rally as a shakedown
for the Tarmac Championship.
Seamus Leonard, always a front runner in
GpN on the Tarmac Championship, is
planning a really big rally year,
possibly as a swansong. As well as
contesting the Tarmac series, Seamus is
going to contest the Dunlop National
Championship in his Lancer. He had been
2nd in GpN on the Galway, until he
crashed his Lancer out on stage 5
Pallas.
Cookstown’s Glenn Allen took his Corolla
WRC to a narrow victory on last
Saturday’s Mid Antrim MC’s Ballypatrick
stages. The narrow tarmac stages through
the Ballycastle and Ballypatrick forests
were icy to start with, and Allen
struggled a bit initially. He had his
girlfriend, Olivia, co-driving, Glenn
was far from familiar with the tracks in
that little corner of Antrim. “After
that we had a grand day, it was a pretty
good event”. Glenn’s next planned event
is Mayo, as a prelude to a Dunlop
National Championship campaign. Colm
Fall was 2nd in Ballypatrick with his
Escort Cosworth, just 5 seconds in
arrears, and previous winner George
Robinson 3rd in his Escort Cosworth.
Alistair Cochrane was 4th, and best
‘2-wheel-drive’, just ahead of Rodney
White in his Sunbeam.
Current Billy Coleman Award winner Owen
Murphy was esctatic with the performance
of his new Lancer when he tested it
before Galway. However on the rally
itself Owen found the pace a real
struggle, and after several overshoots,
admitted that he found the car just too
fast at times and that it was going to
take him a few rallies to get into the
way of it.
Galway historic section winner Marty
McCormack was presented with the
Magherafelt MC Driver of the Year award
at the club’s prestgious dinner dance
the weekend before last. Apart from
winning the Galway Historics in an
Escort, Marty won the ‘modifieds’ on the
Killarney Historic and was best 2 wheel
drive finisher in the NI Championship
overall classification. Alan Bolton, one
of the most hard working respected
organisers in the country, was awarded
the ‘Lifetime Achievemen’ Award. Alan
joked afterwards, “I’ve always called it
The Old Farts Award.
Dermot Hanafin’s company, FitzSamuel
Insurance, had a strong presence before
the start of the Galway Rally, having
been appointed by the governing body,
Motorsport Ireland, as the provider of
competitors personal accident insurance
for 2007. In view of the several serious
accidents in 2006, this insurance
initiative is seen as a necessary and
welcome step forward.
There were all sorts of dramas involved
in getting Marcus Groholm’s Focus WRC
to fire up at the frosty parc ferme in
Galway. If it hadn’t been persuaded to
go, there were would have been many many
thousands of disappointed spectators.
There was hardly a hotel bedroom to be
had for miles around, there were massive
traffic queues as well as packed pubs
and spectator lined hedgerows and
fields. GpN winner James Foley remarked
after one stages, “It reminded me of the
Monte Carlo on TV, thousands of
spectators lining the stage and fifteen
helicopters parked in one field!”
Brian Patterson.
