Irish Notes 16thJuly 2007.
Donegal man Hugh Martin Doherty is trading his Impreza WRC S9 up to an S12 model and plans to contest the Ulster Rally, Cork ‘20’ and his home event the Harvest Rally. Hugh Martin was well into the top ten for most of the recent Donegal International until a broken manifold forced retirement on the penultimate stage.
The Killarney Forestry, which will play host to the MSA Gravel Championship contenders this year, as well as being the final round of the Irish Hankook Forestry series, has a new Clerk of the Course, Kevin Flannery. Plans for the event are well advanced and there is a new HQ this year, the Malton Hotel, formerly known as the Great Southern, in the centre of Killarney. Kevin has also managed to find some new stage mileage this year.
Killybegs man Stuart Darcy, co-driven by Tralee’s Diarmuid Falvey, took his Lancer to a great win on last Sunday’s Birr Stages Rally. Former Billy Coleman Award winner Stuart reported the stages tough, and although dry, were slippy. He was fastest on the opening stage, but had a slight off on the 2nd, where Aidan Bourke was quickest. Darcy was back on top in stage 3 and went on to win despite a broken clutch mechanism. Burke slipped back due to a puncture. For Stuart Darcy this was an emotional win as his rallying hasn’t gone well since his father Frank died a few years ago. His father was very much his mentor and he said at the finish that he wanted to dedicate his win to his late father.
Killarney’s Alan Ring was 2nd in Birr, his GpN Impreza having been away to Prodrive for a re-build, but the Banbury firm is so busy at the moment that the Impreza had to be brought back to Ireland for the rally, and was then to be returned to Prodrive after the event for the work to be completed.
Anthony O’Halloran, from Ruan in Co Clare, took 3rd in Birr with his Manta, and counted himself very lucky to be there at all. Anthony’s Opel had gone on fire the previous weekend on the Sligo Stages Rally, when a fuel rail had split. Anthony had free-wheeled the Manta to within a few yards of a junction, and tried to start the engine again rather than block the narrow stage. The whole car, including Anthony’s overalls, burst into flames. Thankfully it was a junction designated to have the new fire extinguishers, and the marshals had the major fire out in seconds. Motorsport Ireland iniated at the start of this year a new system of having fire extinguishers placed at many junctions throughout the stages of all rallies. This involves a lot of work and organisation, but it certainly paid off this time. O’Halloran just couldn’t praise and thank the marshals enough after the incident.
Tadgh Linehan was 5th in Birr and drove his GpN Subaru. Tadgh had intended to drive his newly acquired BMW M3 but at a test session in the week leading up to the rally he discovered to his cost that the rev limiter wasn’t working properly. He over-revved the engine and blew it up. Happily he has been able to source a new engine which is on its way.
The two day Cork Forestry (18th/19th August) is the next round of Rory Galligan’s Irish Peugeot 205 Challenge series. Kenneth Keyes currently leads the series, following his storming run over the flooded roads of the ALMC event, even a last stage spin failing to deny him his fourth maximum points score.
Navan’s Paddy White reports that he is on course for this week’s Manx International. Paddy’s Focus WRC went back to M-Sport following his ALMC win, and the engineers at Cockermouth found a valve in the steering rack wasn’t opening properly, which re-inforced Paddy’s feeling that something wasn’t quite right with the power steering. The Irish Tarmac contingent travelling to the Island has been further depleted with the news that Kevin Lynch can’t make the trip because he has so much work on at the moment in his services contracting business. Eugene Donnelly, last year’s Manx winner, is however very much on course for the Island trip, and will be hoping to overhaul Mark Higgins in the Tarmac series points. Eugene tested his Reid Motorsport Subaru last Saturday at Orra Lodge, Glendun, did some suspension tweaking, and pronounced himself well pleased with the car. Mark, with Rory Kennedy co-driving as usual, heads the points on paper, although dropped scores would narrow the points gap from 10 to 2. Mark will again be drivng a GpN Subaru, as the event is also a round of the British series. Current Tarmac GpN Champion Colm Murphy was planning, because of budgets, to miss the Manx, but is now competing, to try and pull back some points, having failed to finish in Donegal.
Irish drivers making the trip to this weekend’s classic Swansea Bay rally include Sean Devine in his Impreza WRC, young Keith Cronin from West Cork in his GpN Lancer, and Dungannon’s Adrian Hetherington in his Escort. Also entered are Neil McCance (Lancer), Phillip Morrow (Lancer), Danny Barry (Lancer), Richard Cathcart (Subaru N), Alan Carmichael (Lancer). Jonny Greer, Alastair Fisher, Liam Regan and Barry Greer are also in the line up, contesting the Fiesta series.
Michael Curran could have tied up GpN on the Dunlop National series in Sligo, but his GpN lead on the rally came to naught on the final stage when his Lancer’s gear change mechanism broke leaving the car with no gears.
The grounds of Stormont Castle in Belfast, four hours drive from the rally base in Sligo, is where Rally Ireland organisers have decided to have their Super Special stage. A test of the Creagh Concrete flyover bridge was undertaken last Friday with several top drivers tackling the stage. Despite driving rain the test went well, with no snags reported. The bridge was last used on the Titanic Rally, where it was deemed to be a bit ‘sharp’, but it has now been modified and worked well.
Charlie Donnelly, who had a great race with Pat Donegan and Camillus Bradley on the Titanic event, all in Mk 2 Escorts, was one of the drivers asked to test the bridge at Stormont, and despite the rain, Charlie, who drove his Corolla WRC this time, reported, “It went very well. Its a good stage with nice wide roads and then wee tricky bits to give it spice. The bridge has been flattened, lengthened, and there’s a chicane into it, so its then flat out over the bridge, and although the car doesn’t rise a lot on the top, it flies over the down ramp, and with Carson’s statue there it should be great for the cameras.”
This weekend’s North East Mini Stages, although precluding WRC machinery, has attracted a top class entry. The event is based at Carrickmacross and features two asphalt stages run twice. Adrian McElvaney is the top seed, driving his GpA Impreza, with Stuart Darcy at 2, Pat Donegan at 3, Willie Fannin at 4, Gary McPhillips 5 and Frank Wray at 6.
Limavady’s Richard Hogg took his Octavia WRC to a fine win on the Lark in the Park event swapping seconds throughout the day with Denis Biggerstaff in his Impreza WRC. Denis led by just under a second going into the last stage, and Richard recounted: “ I had taken a second off him on the previous stage and reckoned I could take him on the last stage. Then in the stage I could see he had spun, although I knew I couldn’t relax too much as John McKeown in his Escort WRC had been close all day as well, but we got it in the end. It was a very tricky day, tough work, with wet and dry conditions making it very slippy.” Sean Devine made a hesitant start to the rally as his Impreza was giving some gear selection problems, but with that sorted he set some good times, but then unfortunately reversed his Subaru into a tree. Damage was reportedly light, so hopefully Sean will make the Swansea Bay event. Richard Hogg’s next event in his Skoda WRC will be his home Dogleap Forestry (4th Aug), next round of the NI Championship.
Young Andrew Wilson, son of Sammy Wilson, had a great win on the Ballynahinch Club’s 13th July Bishopscourt event. Severely wet weather and cars sliding off everywhere forced the rally to be curtailed slightly. Andrew Wilson was driving a Starlet, made the most of the difficult conditions, and finished 9 seconds ahead of David Graham (Citroen C2), with event sponsor Roy Haslett 3rd in an Escort F2.
Regards: Brian Patterson
