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Irish Notes 12th March 2008. Rally Ireland has confirmed that well known co-driver Gordon Noble from Omagh is to be Clerk of the Course for Rally Ireland in January ’09. Gordon worked closely with outgoing C of C Tom Walsh and Gordon’s responsibility was principally in the route planning and implementation. The Rally Ireland base will almost certainly stay in Sligo for ’09 and the stages are expected to be fairly similar to the rally just past, which will give Gordon a head start. Current Tarmac Rally Champion Eugene Donnelly has indeed confirmed that he will not compete on the Circuit of Ireland, as he just can’t get the budget together. With the cost of running a top Subaru properly on a Tarmac Championship round now soaring close to the £40,000 mark, it is hardly surprising that top drivers are finding it difficult to raise the necessary funds. The WRC cars are fabulous to watch when driven hard, and reportedly equally great to drive, but the cost factor against returns are really getting a bit out of kilter at the top end. A decent rally car used to be the price of a semi-detached house, now it is more akin to a nice villa, so is it any wonder that the top end is thinning out. It is a situation that sooner or later is going to have to be looked at. In the meantime, it is indeed sad that four times Tarmac Champion Eugene now won’t be in the Circuit line-up. No.1 seed on this weekend’s West Cork Rally, Melvyn Evans, has been forced to pull his entry, as his newly acquired Subaru Impreza WRC S11 needs some gearbox parts and they won’t be available on time. Melvyn thought then that he might do the Circuit, but that is not going to work out either, so he may well do the Roscommon based Midlands rally, as a warm up for the Manx National. Stephen Murphy in his Impreza WRC S12b, along with Killarney’s Donie O’Sullivan, in a McKinstry Subaru, and Liam McCarthy in a newly acquired Corolla are now the top seeds. Donie hasn’t done a rally for two years, but seems to have the natural ability to switch on to it right away. Paul Nagle is co-driving this weekend. Donie intends to drive on the Circuit of Kerry and then the Killarney Rally of the Lakes. Barry Goodman will co-drive on those two, as Paul Nagle intends to keep his powder dry, possibly in the expectation that Kris Meeke will get a deal together for the Lakes. West Cork also sees the debut of the Citroen C2R2 challenge and twelve crews have entered, with last year’s UK C2R2 winner Martin Laverty the No.1 seed, with Martin McCormick next up on his debut drive in a Citroen. It’s all very open however, all new, and should be very interesting. The Irish Evo Challenge should also play a very big part in the Clonakilty based event, with Colm Murphy in the James Foley Lancer almost certainly the man to beat, with drivers such as Owen Murphy and Alan Ring sure to be determined to give Limerick man Colm as hard a time as they can. It is not exactly home ground for Murphy and Ring, but close. First round Irish Evo Challenge winner Brendan Comiskey hasn’t entered West Cork, as his sister is getting married. This may hurt his chances at season’s end for the top prize of a full drive in the Foley Lancer on the 2009 Rally Ireland. Indeed there are a few of the Lancer drivers otherwise engaged this weekend, mostly with family commitments, so there may only be about 6 cars fighting for the points. Further class battles in West Cork should include the one for rear wheel drive honours between drivers such as Phil Collins, John Dalton, Wesley Patterson, Adrian Hetherington and a whole lot more. Brian O’Mahony should be the man to beat in front wheel drive. His fabulous little Super 1600 Renault Clio has been completely stripped down during the winter and rebuilt by John O’Leary Motorsport. Brian, who won the British Super 1600 Champion’s title in 2006, sees West Cork as not just a chance to compete over some fabulous stages, but also as a warm up for another foray on the British Championship. Brian plans to do course car on the Sunday 13th April Moonraker Rally before tackling the opening British round, the Pirelli Rally, over the tough Kielder gravel stages. Derek McGarrity was really switched on when winning Bishopscourt last weekend. It was like the Derek of old. He has done a lot of work on his upper body fitness and was really throwing the Subaru around, banging through the gears, and looks in top form for the Circuit. Mark Higgins has confirmed that he will be driving one of Derek’s Subarus on the Circuit. Mark’s intentions and budgets for the Tarmac Championship were originally structured for one of the ex-works Mitsubishi WRC’s, but there is no sign of that deal coming together. There was also the possibility of driving an ex Kevin Lynch Focus WRC, which, in common with the Subaru, would have been more within the original budget. However, Subaru it is for the Tarmac Championship point’s leader on the Circuit. The top seeds for the Circuit are: 1: Gareth MacHale/Craig Parry (Focus WRC): 2: Mark Higgins/Rory Kennedy (Subaru WRC): 3: Tim McNulty/Eugene O’Donnell (Subaru WRC): 4: Eamonn Boland/Damien Morrissey (Subaru WRC): 5: Aaron MacHale/Killian Duffy (Focus WRC): 6: Derek McGarrity/Diarmuid Falvey (Subaru WRC): 7: Peadar Hurson/Damien Connolly (Subaru WRC): 8: Denis Biggerstaff/Alistair Wylie (Subaru WRC): 9: Garry Jennings/tba (Lancer N): 10: Kevin & Martin Kelleher (Lancer N): The top seeds in the National Rally running on Saturday & Sunday are: 1: Glenn Allen/Damien Connolly (Corolla WRC): 2: Sean Devine/Damien Duffin (Subaru WRC): 3: Connor McCloskey/Francis Regan (Focus WRC): 4: George Robinson/Francis Kenny (Subaru WRC): 5: Raymond Johnson/tba (Subaru WRC): The Fiesta Sporting Trophy runs on Sunday with top seeds Elfyn Evans, Alistair Fisher and Tadgh Buckey. We were down making the notes for the Limerick Forestry this week, and the four stages run twice should make for a good day’s sport. Liam Aherne, the Clerk of the Course, has put a lot of work into the organisation of the Easter Sunday event, and it is all coming together well. Just one of the entries should be Billy Coleman Award winner Keith Cronin, as a warm up for the next UK Evo round, the Border Counties. Keith will have Greg Shinnors co-drivng in Limerick and on the UK forestry events. Greg will also be co-driving for Owen Murphy on a couple of events during the year, namely the Killarney Lakes and the Cork ‘20’. Aaron MacHale in his Focus WRC had to work really hard for his win on last Sunday’s Mayo Rally; it was close run thing all day with Niall Maguire. Three times former National Champion Niall was driving an Impreza WRC S11 and seems to have really taken to the car, plus is on a fitness regime. Something seems to have transformed the Monaghan man’s pace, whether it is the fitness or the car, who knows. Clonakilty brothers Kevin and Martin Kelleher crashed their Lancer in major fashion on the very first stage in Mayo, which was a big disappointment all round, particularly following their fine showing in Galway. Kevin was more or less flat out at the time, had caught up with Sean Gallagher and was in his spray to a certain extent, and just got it wrong over some bumps and jumps. The Lancer rolled very violently, and thankfully neither Kevin nor Martin was injured. They put this down in part to wearing the Hans devices. This was the first time they had worn them, and although they cost a fortune, they reckon it was money very well spent. Stan Harper looks after the Kelleher ‘The Big Fella’ Lancer and whether it will be ready for its next planned outing, the Circuit, is very much touch and go. It is with great sadness that we report the death of Mitchelstown’s Jim O’Brien. Jim was the Clerk of the Course of the Sean Conlon Memorial/Mitchelstown Forestry event for many years and quite often battled against ongoing illness to organise the rally. It was a great passion for him, and working from his Portacabin, with his cats on the desk beside him, at his used car lot on Mitchelstown’s Main Street, Jim organised some great rallies. He was old school. His master plan was quite often on the back of a fag packet, although for him smoking was very much a thing of the past. Jim used to proudly say that his was ‘The Pound Shop Rally – no frills!”. He lived a very full and colourful life and enjoyed every minute of it. Jim was rallying back in the Sixties and Seventies, when it was all much more of an adventure. He will be sadly missed, not just in his capacity as Clerk of the Course of the Forestry, but because he was a really good, decent man. Just a small thing about Jim, was that he often marshalled or manned a passage control. As soon as he had a moment, the tea flasks and the wee buns came out of the back of whatever imported little gem he would be driving at that moment. His hospitality knew no bounds, and wouldn’t take no for an answer when he offered you a cup. They were always special moments that were spent with him in these out of the way spots. On a personal note, the last time we saw Jim was just before the latest Sean Conlon, when he met at his car sales business, to give us the route, so that we could make the notes. We quickly realised that he was ill, but he didn’t complain, and there was the usual cup of coffee and a chat. It was only afterwards that we learned that he had got out of his sick bed especially to meet us. Felt it was his duty, his job. Yes, he was a special guy, heart like a lion. To his wife Joan and his family circle we offer our deepest condolences. Brian Patterson. |
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