Irish Notes 19^th March 2007.

Efforts are being made by Limerick Motor Club to run a forestry rally on the 15^th April. The event is planned to be a substitute for the Wicklow Forestry, which was cancelled for this year due to harvesting operations.  The proposed Limerick event will fill the gap in the Forestry Championship.

Sean Devine has changed his Impreza WRC S9 to the ex Noel Redmond S11 and plans to contest further rounds of the Dunlop National Championship.

Cork’s Tadgh Linehan is forsaking his Bio-Tech GpN Impreza for an ex Colin McRae Subaru WRC supplied by Martyn Spurrell’s Autosportif concern. “Its something I’ve always wanted to do, drive a WRC car” commented Linehan. He plans to make the Killarney Rally of the Lakes his first event in the Impreza WRC. Mark Kane will again co-drive.

Willie Fannin’s current Impreza N12 suffered only light damage in his Mayo Stages accident, and Willie is on course to contest the next round of the Dunlop Championship, the Circuit of Kerry, on 1^st April. Mark Nangle was driving Willie’s older Impreza in West Cork.

Liam McCarthy drove Eugene Donnelly’s Impreza WRC S12 on last weekend’s West Cork Rally. Liam and his co driver Kieran Murphy, who also sponsors the car, hope to have their own S12 within the next few weeks. If it is not ready for the Circuit of Kerry they will enter the following round of the Dunlop National Championship in Carlow.  McCarthy’s new S12 will almost certainly have the customer specification gearbox.

Irish Forestry Champion John McCarthy was an interested spectator on the West Cork Rally. The Carrigtwohill man continues to make good progress following his Wexford Rally accident last year.

Tralee’s Diarmuid Falvey, who co-drove Derek McGarrity to victory on the Jim Clark Rally last year, is now to co-drive Martin Doherty in his Impreza WRC on the Circuit of Kerry event.

This weekend’s Sean Conlon Memorial Rally is Round 2 of the Hankook Irish National Forestry Championship.  Brendan Crealey, who crashed out of the opening round, was hoping to have his ex ADR/works Lancer re-shelled for the event. That now seems unlikely to happen within the time frame. Brendan is intending to do as many rounds of the championship as he can in preparation for next year’s forestry series. Stephen Moore (Focus WRC) currently leads the championship following his 1^st round win and he will face stern opposition this weekend in Mitchelstown.

Greg Shinnors has been asked to co-drive for young Welshman Gareth Jones on this season’s Tarmac Championship. David Moynihan has decided to step back temporarily for personal reasons. Shinnors will not be available to do the UAC Easter event with Jones, but should take the co-drivers seat in the Reid Transport team Focus WRC from the Rally of the Lakes onwards.  Andrew Bargery is tipped to co-drive on the Easter event.
 

Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly was hoping to fit in a rally before the UAC Easter event. However, this cannot be arranged within the time scale and Eugene will have to make do with a short test session in preparation for the next tarmac round. Eugene will be working in Spain immediately prior to the rally, which will put him on a tight schedule. 

The Junior division of the West Cork Rally was won by Barry Ryan/Donal Falvey in their Escort, from Jason Ryan/Tadgh O’Sullivan (Civic), with Eamonn and William Power 3^rd in their Peugeot. The juniors were only able to compete over two stages, which was a disappointment. Todd Falvey won the historic section in his Porsche 911, with Don Moynihan and Eilir Morris 3^rd, both in Escorts.

Brian Patterson.