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Irish Notes 30th January 2008.
Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly has restructured a deal to compete on
this weekend’s Safety Direct Galway International and will drive Jack
Sleator’s Impreza WRC S12, while Mark Higgins will drive Derek
McGarrity’s Impreza WRC S12. Gareth MacHale will lead the field away in
his ’06 Focus WRC. There was no sign of Andreas Mikkelsen in Galway for
the first ‘recce’ last weekend, but reportedly the young Norwegian is on
course for the rally.
Tim McNulty is at 5 in his Pierse backed Impreza WRC S11 and Tim seems
to be in great form, saying “ Really looking forward to it. Back on
track, lifted the head again after last year’s disasters.” Eamonn Boland
at 6 in his Focus WRC has Damien Morrissey co-driving again, to replace
Francis Regan. Aaron MacHale at 7 is another who seems in fine form for
the rally and has done a bit of testing in his Focus WRC. Patrick
Elliott, who has Paul Goodman co-driving, is next up. Then its Derek
McGarrity, with Diarmuid Falvey co-driving. Derek will not get a chance
to test his Prodrive Impreza WRC until just before the rally. Stephen
Murphy will debut his new Impreza WRC S12b and rounds off the top ten.
Peadar Hurson was to be at 11, driving one of Patrick Elliott’s Impreza
WRC’s, but Peadar has withdrawn, and hopes to get sorted for the
Circuit. Kevin Barrett now has Sean Mullally co-driving, Kevin’s regular
man on the maps Barry Goodman taking a year off from rallying to get
married. Kevin plans to concentrate on the Dunlop National Championship
this season, but is intent on giving Galway a good go. Niall Maguire is
to drive the ex Stephen Murphy Impreza S11 and starts at 15.
James Foley seems set to withdraw his Galway entry, and if everything
works out will hire his Lancer to Colm Murphy. We mentioned last week
that Rory Galligan was going to look after the parts supply for the
Irish Evo Challenge, but this has now changed and it will be James
Foley. James, who is fully committed to backing the Evo Challenge, will
have a large unit on the events providing hospitality, parts and back up
for the Evo crews.
Garry Jennings is sticking with his own Lancer for Galway, and is not
registering for the Evo Challenge, as he does not want to relinquish his
own tyre deal. Damien Connolly, who was to have sat with Peadar Hurson,
is co-driving for Garry this weekend.
Damien will then be guiding NI Champion Glenn Allen during the season,
Glenn aiming to tackle the NI Championship and the Dunlop National
Championship in his Corolla WRC, although there are some date clashes.
Andrew Bushe has had his Saxo completely re-built by Gerry McGarrity for
Galway, and reckons it’s a totally different car. Andrew’s main class
opposition will come from Mark Sheahan in his Clio. Normal front runner
Brian O’Mahony is not tackling Galway, but looking more towards the BRC
and the big Pirelli prize.
David Roe has a new 2-litre Scholar engined Escort for Galway, and is
hoping for better things than the last time he tackled the event, when
he had a disaster on the Black Road.
Damien Tourish has been badly hurt after a concrete stairway he was
installing fell on him, and will certainly not be competing in Galway.
We wish him a speedy and full recovery.
The Fiesta Sporting Trophy runners in Galway are going to have a last
minute conundrum as their cars have to run on the new Maxol Bio-Ethanol
E85 fuel. However the Maxol stations in Galway that are going to stock
the new fuel weren’t set up for it last weekend, and its doubtful if
they will have it installed for the rally. Interestingly there will
supposedly be a slight technical difference between the UK specification
fuel and the Irish variety anyway, so what way that will affect the
engine mapping remains to be seen. The Fiesta runners will use Pirelli
control tyres this year and the six rounds will all be on tarmac. There
is €18,000 prize money on offer during the six round season – from 750
for a win down 75 for 8th on each event, as well as a great prize for
the winner at the end.
Trevor Moore is coming back to rallying, having bought the ex Alister
McRae white Mk2 Escort, and plans to compete in Mitchelstown and then
contest the Irish Forestry series. The Mitchelstown Sean Conlon counter
had around seventy entries earlier this week, so is shaping up well.
Edward O’Callaghan/Ger Clancy took their Manta to a fine win on last
weekend’ Limerick Restricted Mini Stages Rally, finishing 15 secs ahead
of Ed Synan/ Denis O’Connell in their Escort. Barry Meade/Colin
Fitzgerald took third in their Mk2. Paul Purtill set the early pace but
his Escort hit mechanical problems and he finished well down the order.
Lisburn’s Phillip Morrow, Evo Challenge winner and now Mitsubishi
‘works’ driver, received further honours last week when he was voted
Motorsport Person of the Year by the ANICC.
Similarly Letterkenny’s Shaun Gallagher was honoured in Donegal and was
crowned ‘Sporting King of Donegal’ at a big night in the Mount Errigal
Hotel. This was further endorsement of Shaun’s 2007 achievement in
winning the Junior Rookie World Championship in his Citroen C2R2. Shaun
is hoping to step up to the full Junior World Championship this season.
This weekend’s Mid Antrim MC’s Ballypatrick Stage Rally looks certain to
be called off, Raymond Linton reporting that only 18 entries had been
received by Tuesday of this week.
Nasser Al-Attiyah and his co-driver Chris Patterson debuted the new
Subaru Impreza N14 on last weekends Qatar International Rally. The
current Middle East Champions had a trouble free run to victory and
reported the new car a real step forward. Runner up was Misfer Al-Marri,
co-driven by Belfast based Stephen McAuley, in the second QMMF GpN
Impreza, both cars run by Ken Skidmore’s Autotek concern.
Brian Patterson.
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