Irish Notes 5^th March 2008.

Circuit winner in ’03, ’04 & ’05 Derek McGarrity is on course for this Easter’s Circuit of Ireland and plans to test a Subaru this Friday, compete on the NI Championship round at Bishopscourt on Saturday, and then do one more day’s testing before Easter.

He is in the throes of several deals and is not sure exactly which car he will use. The Subaru Impreza WRC12b that he planned to use on the Galway Rally, until he was stopped in his tracks by an insurance cover note slip-up, has now gone to Eamonn Boland. A further complication is that the deal with Mark Higgins for the Circuit is still in flux and Mark may or may not drive a Subaru. It could be a Mitsubishi WRC or indeed another car altogether. All should become clear before the weekend.

Derek was in good form when we talked to him earlier this week and seems to have put all the problems from his 2006 Manx accident well behind him. He commented, “I believe from talking to Stephen Potts of the UAC that the Circuit stages are tough, technical, bumpy and twisty. It sounds good, and I would love to win the rally again”.

In overall terms the entry for the International section of the Circuit seems a bit light, while counterbalancing that the National entry is over-subscribed. Most of the expected top names are entered for this 2^nd round of the Global Group Tarmac Championship but with two glaring exceptions, the current Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly and young Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen. Donnelly’s entry could well be in the pipeline, as it is believed that he is struggling hard to pull sponsorship deals together.  

First round winner Mark Higgins, as already mentioned, is in, as is Gareth MacHale and Aaron MacHale in their respective Fords. Tim McNulty has entered his new Subaru WRC S12b, Eamonn Boland will have his new Subaru, Peadar Hurson is a welcome addition and will drive the ex Derek McGarrity/Patrick Elliott Subaru S10. Denis Biggerstaff and Galway’s Mike Bird have entered their respective Subaru WRC’s, while the top GpN men are Garry Jennings, Kevin Kelleher and Roy White in his MG Super 2000.  

Andreas Mikkelsen has won another round of the Norwegian championship to extend his lead in that series.  As days off school are limited that is where his emphasis will be for the moment. 

The National part of the Circuit, which is a round of the NI Championship, will feature plenty of good drivers including current champion Glenn Allen, Sean Devine and Connor McCloskey. The National will run on Saturday and Sunday, with the Internationals starting on Friday. Disappointingly, the National Rally will finish in Castlewellan, whereas the International will finish in Newry. Surely it is time this was all one rally. 

Looking back to last weekend, Brian Dowey, co-driven by Ricky Cochrane, took his Escort Cosworth to a 17 second win over PJ Gillespie/Mary O’Kane in their Lancer on the Stephen Mawhinney Motors  Stages Rally. Kieran Graffin/Charlie Beattie were 3^rd in an Impreza WRC.  PJ Gillespie had been leading up to the final stage but broke the gearbox on the start line and lost 25s to Dowey.  John McKeown was unable to start the event due to a broken front diff.   

On the Carrick on Suir Forestry, with its 05.00 start and three stages in darkness, Ray Breen in his Focus WRC won by 3 seconds from Andrew Purcell in his Subaru, a result good enough for Purcell to extend his lead in the Hankook Irish Forestry series. Colin Britton was 3^rd in Carrick with his Lancer.  There were several high profile retirements including Denis Cronin who slid his Subaru off at a hairpin and Kevin O’Kane who was up to 5^th when his Subaru developed a small mechanical problem.   

Martin Brady was co-driving for Kevin and he told us that he had received a letter from Rally America (one of the US rally governing bodies) putting him on “rally probation” for one year.  This was as a result of his regular driver in the states, Piotr Wycklorczyk, having been caught for speeding on the way to the finish of the 100 Acres Wood Rally.  Piotr then thought he was going to be late into the finish and arrived into town in a bit of a flurry, overshot the final control, hand braked his Subaru round and finished from the wrong direction.  The Club saw fit to exclude him from the results.  Then a letter arrived at Martin’s house informing him of the probation and how disappointing it was that this should happen when the co-driver is a law enforcement officer in Ireland.  It just so happened that Martin was actually doing the Rallye Sunseeker with Richard Cathcart that weekend and it was a US domiciled Irishman Mark McAllister who was co driving in the Subaru.  Martin informed the relevant authorities of the facts and the matter has now been closed!   

Interestingly the name of the rally “100 Acres Wood” is in respect of the author of the Winnie The Pooh books, A.A. Milne, who lived in that part of the world for a while.  Winnie the Pooh is the mascot of the rally.   

On last weekend’s Malcolm Wilson Rally through the Grizedale and Greystoke forests David Bogie again showed remarkable talent by taking victory over Paul Bird. Adrian Hetherington was 2^nd in his class, Liam Regan was 3^rd in the Fiestas and Kyle Orr 4^th. Barry Greer and Alastair Fisher both retired their Fiestas. The stub axle sheared off Alastair’s Fiesta on the 4^th stage, just one of those things. Barry Greer didn’t seem to have a good day either, sliding off the first corner of the first stage, damaging the radiator, and then he got held up in somebody else’s road accident and went OTL. Alastair’s next event will be the Fiestas section of the Circuit, which is just the Sunday leg.  

Meanwhile this weekend looks to be busy on the stages, with packed entry lists for both the opening round of the Dunlop National Championship in Mayo, and the 2^nd round of the NI Championship at Bishopscourt. Aaron MacHale in his Focus heads the list for the Castlebar based Mayo event. Tim McNulty is at 2, in what will be a shakedown for his new Subaru before the Circuit. Most of the Dunlop National Championship regulars are in the list including Patrick Elliott, Niall Maguire and Kevin Barrett in their Subarus. Glenn Allen has entered in his Corolla, but just how he is going to do Bishopscourt and Mayo should be quite interesting. Wild cards in Mayo include P.J McDermott in his Subaru, with Rory Kennedy co-driving this time, and also Seamus Leonard competing in an Impreza WRC. Seamus drove the Impreza on the Galway Rally for the first time, and although on the surface he didn’t appear to do very well, scratch a little deeper and it was noticeable that following a first stage gear change problem, he quickly got on to Aaron MacHale’s pace. Another interesting entry for Mayo is that of Forestry Champion Stephen Moore.  Stephen is doing some tarmac testing this Friday with Dom Buckley and is then competing in Mayo to try and build up tarmac experience with his new Focus WRC.  

At the McGrady Insurance sponsored Bishopscourt Stages Rally, no doubt following their monumental Kirkistown battle, it will be more of the same between Sean Devine in his Subaru and Connor McCloskey in his Focus WRC. Add in drivers such as Derek McGarrity, Glenn Allen, Raymond Johnson and Denis Biggerstaff, and it starts to look really interesting.

Brian Patterson.