Irish Notes 7^th November 2007.

Following his retirement from the Townparks Rally last Saturday, Stephen Moore passed the keys of his Focus WRC to Connor McCloskey, who will drive the car next season. Stephen will use a new Focus WRC and is determined to have another go at winning the NI Championship. Stephen has of course won the Hankook Southern Forestry series this year, and will receive his award this coming Saturday night at the prizegiving in Kilkenny.

About his retirement on the Townparks, it was a long shot for Stephen to take the NI title, and really he had to beat Sean Devine as well as Glenn Allen. Sean set a stunningly fastest time on the opening stage, Stephen was fastest on the next two, but out braked himself on stage 4, his Focus stepped out and slid into a ditch and was firmly stuck.

This meant that Glenn Allen had the title won, didn’t even have to finish. Finish he did though, in 2^nd place, and for 39 year old Glenn it was the fulfilment of a long held dream to win the NI Championship. He really struggled initially with his re-built Corolla, was extremely uncomfortable, with the car and with his own mind-set. But he settled in eventually. Derek McGeehan made a few adjustments to the Corolla’s set-up, so that Glenn was able to match Sean Devine’s times.

In all fairness though, in the second half of the rally, Sean was having a few issues with the gear change hydraulics on his Impreza. He kept his mind firmly on getting the car to the finish however, as the stages cut up, to secure his hat-trick of wins through the Glens of Antrim.

It was thought initially that Damien Connolly had missed out on the co-drivers’ title, and that Tony Hugh would take it, but on a recount it seems that Damien has indeed won it. The GpN title was a similarly run matter. Two drivers, Eoin McErlean and Ian Cochrane, were matched in the points and were nip and tuck on times through most of the rally.

A couple of stages from the end of the Townparks, Cochrane’s Lancer ground to halt on the road section up to Ballypatrick. It was a borrowed car, and Ian couldn’t find the switch for the spare fuel pump. Eventually it burst into life and he roared through the next stage, but had received road penalties, and dropped from 2^nd GpN to 5^th on the rally. Unbeknown to Ian, McErlean’s Lancer had stopped with a burst rear differential.

Initially it appeared that Ian had taken the Group N Title, but on Tuesday when Kieran O’Neill was checking all the points he discovered that Eoin McErlean was the new NI GpN Champion. Kieran reported. “Ian Cochrane won Class 2 within the NI Championship but not GpN overall. Both class 1 and class 2 are GpN classes. The GpN trophy goes to the highest placed GpN car in the overall championship and that was Eoin McErlean”.  

Paul Britton survived an early spin to take his Impreza to an impressive GpN win on the Townparks.  

One happy man at the end of the Townparks was Glenn Campbell. He brought his little Micra into 2^nd in class, which made it 22 finishes from 22 starts this year, and earned him the Mid Antrim Motor Club Champion title. Glenn has also won the PHP NI Clubman’s 2 wheel drive championship.

Marty McCormack turned in another impressive performance on the Townparks, finishing in the top ten despite having to block off the rear brakes on his Mk2 Escort. McCormack’s day was completed when he picked up his awards at the Global Group Tarmac Championship prizegiving at the Ramada Hotel near Shaws Bridge on Saturday night.

Not only did he win his class in the Championship, Marty was called up to the stage again to receive a cheque for £7,500 from the Fisher Foundation to help with his rallying next year. There is a chance that Marty may have a Citroen C2R2 for next year which should be interesting. Ernie Fisher, Bertie’s brother, and Gladys, Bertie’s widow, gave out the Fisher Foundation awards. Footage of Bertie, Mark and Emma brought back the whole tragedy, and despite the passage of time, evoked much sadness. It feels especially poignant at the moment as one of the Rally Ireland stages has its stop line at the gates of the cemetery where Bertie, Mark and Emma are buried.

Alastair Fisher and his co driver Barry McNulty received their awards for winning the Fiesta Sporting Trophy and also a special media award. Jonny Greer also received his award for runner up in the Fiesta series. Jonny of course won the UK based gravel Fiesta series and as he recovered on Sunday from the Tarmac do, news came through that he has also won the 2007 Hankook Forest Challenge based on the ANCRO Clubman’s championship. Jonny had already done enough to win it despite not competing on the Yorkshire based Malton Rally which was won by Dave Weston in his Focus WRC.

Further awards from the Fisher Foundation went to Mayo Motor Club, to go towards safety equipment. The top award at the Tarmac prizegiving, which was punctuated by a rather startling performance of Lambeg drumming, went of course to Eugene Donnelly, his fourth Tarmac title. Eugene gave a very accomplished speech worthy of the best politician in the land. He paid special tribute to the Reid Motorsport team and emphasised again the strength of the team throughout the year. In private Eugene talked about how pleased he is with his new Skoda, and what a brilliant little car it is in the ‘tight’ stuff.

What Eugene said about the Skoda on the tight stuff was particularly interesting as Michael and I have just completed making the route notes for Rally Ireland and there are large sections of the stages which are very tight, real boreen stuff. Further news on Rally Ireland is that Duval has pulled out as well as Willie Fannin, JJ Fleming and Seamus Leonard. Now officially included is young Toni Kelly, Michael Cummins and Brian Pat Doherty.

George Tracey is thought to be foregoing his troublesome Peugeot 206 WRC and has obtained a Focus WRC, a former Stephen Moore/Craig Bennett car, from Derek McGarrity for Rally Ireland. Roy White has now tested the new MG Super 2000 from the MSD stable, was delighted with the car, and is on course to use it on Rally Ireland.

This weekend’s Kerry Mini Stages is the final round of the Top Part South West Stages Championship. Kevin O’Donoghue, last year’s winner, who is currently out in South Africa with the Mellon building scheme, is the No.1 seed for the Banna Beach Hotel/Bio-tech backed event. At 2 is Clonakilty man Kevin Kelleher, who always supports the event and is looking forward to renewing his friendly rivalry with Keith Cronin, who is seeded at 4. These two had the most tremendous battle on the Fastnet. The Kerry Mini stages are of a different nature to the Fastnet, much more fast and open.

Alan Ring is seeded at 3, the Munster Joinery man reportedly to drive an ex Willie Fannin Impreza GPN, his own car having been damaged in Skibbereen. He is tipped to be possibly driving a newly built ADR Lancer Evo9 on Rally Ireland, a car that was earmarked for Seamus Leonard. Alan is another with a good chance of lifting the Top Part title. Anthony O’Halloran in his Manta and Mike Quinn in his Escort complete the top half dozen of the 151 strong entry, with another astonishing 100+ in the reserve list.

The Killarney Historic Rally, again backed by Great Stuff Caterers, has released early details of the 1^st & 2^nd December backed event, and as always there is a huge demand for entries, and lots of interesting drivers, just some of whom include Russell Brookes, Kris Meeke, Phil Collins and Dessie McCartney, as well as regulars such as Dave Slattery, Tom Randles and Kevin O’Donoghue.

Brian Patterson.