Irish Notes 5^th January 2007.

 

Charlie Donnelly and guest co-driver Pat O’Kane took an impressive win on the Rally of the 1000 Entries at Kirkistown between Christmas and the New Year. The rally, organised by Magherafelt Motor Club, was a tremendous success and more than achieved its main objective of raising £100,000 for the Christopher Roger appeal and to launch the new Rally Specialist Medical Assistance Fund. National Champion Donnelly fluffed the start of the first stage, recounting, “I was caught on the hop, switched on the lag, but realised there was no bang banging! I’d forgotten to put my finger on the steering wheel button, so just floored the throttle! Overall though it was a fantastic day, it was great to win this special rally.”

 

On the subject of this forthcoming season, Charlie continued. “I have thought about it over the holidays, and I’ve decided to give competing a rest, give myself a chance. The Corolla is sold to a NI competitor, and I’ll do all I can to help Eugene with the new Subaru on the Tarmac Championship.”  Eugene himself performed “OO” duties’ on the Rally of the 1000 Entries, giving a succession of guest co-drivers high speed runs. Some of the times Eugene was setting would certainly have seen him on the podium! Eugene was originally intending to drive the Skoda WRC. However, on the day it was driven by Maurice Gass. Armagh man Maurice commented, “I feel rejuvenated. I’m going to do Galway and probably the whole Tarmac Championship”

 

The three highly prized Trophies from the late Bertie Fisher’s collection were not awarded in the normal manner on the Rally of the 1000 Entries, but were the subject of a draw, so that every competing crew had a chance of taking one home. Mrs Gladys Fisher was on hand to make the presentation, and as the winter sun dropped behind the new Kirkistown grandstand, it was a fitting end to a great day’s rallyimgt. The names of the crews drawn out of a hat were: Kevin O’Brien/Hugh McCallum, Paul Hughes/Aquim Rafferty, and James Cullen/James Sharkey.

 

Further competition over the Christmas holidays included the rally sprint at Mondello, where Kevin Barrett, driving his Impreza WRC, came out tops. George Tracey was 2^nd in his Metro 6R4 and David James 3^rd in his Focus WRC. Andrew Nesbitt, still not fully recovered from his accident on the Cork ‘20’, was 7^th, driving George Tracey’s Peugeot 206 WRC. Andrew suffered cracked vertebrae and a prolapsed disc in that Cork ‘20’ accident, and reckons it will be Circuit of Ireland time before he is fully fit.

 

Kenny McKinstry finished down in 10^th at Mondello, as he fought to get to grips with a newly acquired Prodrive Subaru WRC S11. “The car is in European asphalt trim, so it sits low, but that wasn’t such a great problem. It works very well on the smooth stuff and is not so bad over the bumps. What did take a bit of getting used to is the punch from the anti-lag, plus the real sharp bite from the engine. I kept spinning the thing!” The new Impreza is earmarked for two drivers to hire this coming year, through Kenny’s McKinstry Motorsport business. Jim Harrison and Liam McCarthy will each use the car on selected Tarmac, Dunlop National and two-day events, such as West Cork and Wexford.

 

Ballymoney’s John McKeown took his pristine Escort Cosworth to victory on the ‘ Turkey Run’, a special stage event at Aghadowey. Brian Dowey, McKeown’s brother in law, bought John Donnelly’s Escort WRC the day before Aghadowey, and finished a very creditable runner-up to McKeown, just pipping Eoin McErlean in his Lancer.

 

John Lyons’ 17 year old son Robin won the UAC Boxing Day Rally.  Alan Dornan co-drove on the Anahilt based event.  The pair were in a Mini. Interestingly, John Lyons won the rally about 30 years ago during his heyday as not only an International rally driver but also the king of autotesting in the British Isles .

 

Killarney’s Dave Slattery was forced to retire his Escort at Kirkistown when gearbox maladies intervened. Dave, who considered the long trip from Kerry to Co. Down more than worth it, plans to build a new Mk2 Escort for the Clonakilty based, St Patrick’s weekend West Cork Rally.

 

 

The third driver for the mooted new ‘Reid Transport’ team is tipped to be young Welsh driver Gareth Jones.  James Cullen and Shaun Reid in their respective GpN Lancers have already been named. The overall aim is for the three car outfit to contest the Tarmac series. Jones, whose Subaru WRC has been sold to a Scandinavian driver, is therefore on the hunt for a new car, and is also planning to contest some WRC events. It is expected that an announcement will be made shortly to firm up the new team’s plans.

 

Lisburn’s quickest oil delivery man, Phillip Morrow, is again expected to go the BRC route this season with his Lancer Evo9. Phillip is expected to pursue the prestigious Pirelli ‘Young Driver’ award.

 

Further information on the Marcus Gronholm/Gareth MacHale Galway entry – John O’Connell , CoC of Galway has received an email from M-Sport to confirm the entries both in 06 Focus WRC's.

Further information from the Galway organisers is that Prodrive has been making enquiries regarding an entry for Chris Atkinson.

Brian Patterson.