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Irish Notes 28th Nov. ’07
This weekend’s Killarney Historic Rally has once again a bulging entry list, sub-divided into various categories, principally for Historic/Post Historic/Classic Cars in the top 90, and then grouped behind that are the Modified cars. In addition there are some juniors. Last year’s winner of the Historics, Dessie Nutt, is away doing ‘doctor duties’ on the East African Safari Classic Rally, so Ray Cunningham in his Mini Cooper is the No.1 seed. Galway man Ray will face tough oppostion, not least from local man Todd Falvey in his Porsche, as well as previous Historic Champion John Keatley, also in a 911, and former British Rally Champion Russell Brookes in his original Andrews Heat for Hire Lotus Cortina.
The modified section looks as if it will be no less frenetic, with the top names including Phil Collins, Kris Meeke, Gareth Lloyd, Kevin O’Donoghue and Dave Slattery. They all drive Mk2 Escorts. Slattery is the latest to introduce a sequential box plus all the whistles and bells to his Mk2. He gave the car a good shakedown on the Kerry Mini Stages a couple of weeks ago, and was well pleased with it.
Dave Randles, whose family hotel hosts the Great Stuff Catering backed Killarney Historic, normally ‘00’s’ on his home event, but as his ex-works Nissan suffered a damaged engine on the recent Kerry stages, Dave is re-grouping for next year and plans to contest the Tarmac and British Championships.
Meanwhile with the dust barely settled on Rally Ireland, but the talk continuing about what a terrific rally it was, as well as the fabulous way the Garda and the PSNI handled everything, the spotlight switches to Wales Rally GB. Early reports from the recce are that, just like Rally Ireland, the stages are wet and muddy. Following his three wins in Ireland this year, Sebastien Loeb and his Citroen now have a cult following here, and of course interest is intense in whether he can retain his World Champion’s crown by finishing in the top five, even if Gronholm wins. Similarly, Mark Higgins has made a lot of friends and admirers in Irish rallying. Mark has seen the Tarmac Championship and the Production World Rally Championship slip through his fingers in recent weeks. On Wales Rally GB he can take the British title for the third year in a row. On the plus side he will be driving his Production World Championship Subaru Impreza this time, while on the debit side his injured shoulder is still giving him a lot of trouble.
A disappointment for Irish fans is that Phillip Morrow doesn’t look as if he will be competing on Wales Rally GB. The high speed oil delivery driver from Lisburn is doing the recce, to gain experience, but plans then to fly home. He just simply does not have any budget left to compete on the rally. Phillip has already clinched the Evo Challenge so will drive a ‘works’ Lancer on next year’s Championship. He is also building a left hand drive Lancer Evo9 to use on selected events next season, to gain experience. In the immediate future he has the Pirelli selection days, one day of interviews, and one driving day at M-Sport’s test stage, Greystoke. The other finalists are Guy Wilks, Darren Gass, George Thomas and James Wozencroft. There could be a sixth contestant picked at Wales Rally GB.
Martin Laverty, who along with his wife Patricia were among the lead timekeepers on Rally Ireland, is contesting Wales Rally GB and is well in the running to win the Citroen C2R2 Cup. Martin had all sorts of problems with his C2R2 during the season, but is at last really happy with the car, particularly when a differential difficulty was sorted out and the car is a lot better to drive. Martin’s main opponents are George Thomas and Jason Pritchard.
Just some of the other Irish drivers entered for Wales Rally GB include young Jonny Greer, who will drive a GpN Lancer for the first time. Darren Gass is entered in his Citroen C2, Shaun Gallagher in his Citroen and Cork man John O’Leary in his GpN Impreza. Niall McShea was due to compete, but his deal has fallen through, which, considering his stunning drive on Rally Ireland, is quite a shame and hard to understand. It’s probably all about politics and finance!
Outgoing Production World Rally Champion Nasser Al-Attiyah and his co-driver Chris Patterson are also missing Wales Rally GB, as they are contestsing the Dubai International Rally. Nasser went for years and hardly scratched any of his rally cars, but a couple of high profile shunts this season have put the crew a tad on the back foot. However, if they can keep it all together this weekend in Dubai they will retain their Middle East Champion’s title. At least their Autotek prepared Imprezas, under the guidance of Ken Skidmore, have once again run like clockwork this year. Nasser really enjoyed his first Irish visit. He felt he was learning all the time, and finished 3rd PWRC, 4th in GpN on Rally Ireland.
Just one more really pleasant story to surface following Rally Ireland centred on a young Scottish lad, David Bogie. Although relatively unknown here, David is shaping up to be a bit of a superstar in a rally car, and recently won the McRae Stages. He decided to nip over for Rally Ireland just to have a look at a couple of stages and soak up the atmosphere. Along with many others he couldn’t find a programme to get the maps, but found a stage on the Thursday night, slept in his car and watched the action the next morning. He happened to ask a couple of other young guys, complete strangers, who were spectating, if they knew where he could get a programme. They told him they had two and he was welcome to one of them. They then said they were heading to another stage and calling at their home on the way for the bacon and eggs and he was welcome to join them! That was the start of a very enjoyable and social weekend for young Mr. Bogie. He is certainly a young man to look out for in future, and hopefully we will see him on some, if not plenty, of Irish rallies.
Next week, following Wales Rally GB, also sees the ‘shoot-out’ of all the Fiesta Sporting Trophy winners from all around the world. 19 year old Alastair Fisher from Ballinamallrd, winner of the Irish series, Jonny Greer from Carryduff, winner of the UK series, and Conor Harvey from Letterkenny, as a ‘wild card’ will be put through their paces over in Cumbria at M-Sport, and we wish them well.
Finally for now, we related the story of how Tony Jardine’s wife Jeanette was seriously injured back in their home village of Ascot, just as Tony was signing on for the recce in Sligo for Rally Ireland. Happily Jeanette, who lost an arm in the accident, is out of hospital and back home. Their family and many friends have all been lending support. Tony sends his thanks to all involved in Rally Ireland, as well as so many others for their support. Tony was enetered in Wales Rally GB, and was going to pull the entry, so that he could be at home with Jeanette, but with her approval he is now taking part in the event. Well known writer and broadcaster Maurice Hamilton will be co-driving.
Brian Patterson. |
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