| RALLY NEWS NO.1 Skibbereen/Sunday morning very early…
This Skibbereen based Fastnet Rally sports some extremely high profile drivers at the top of the entry list, in addition to a great cross section of drivers from the Dunlop National and 023 Tiles Southern Four Championships. With Rally Ireland looming just a couple of weeks away, several drivers, such as Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly and young Norwegian star Andreas Mikkelsen are just two who are competing here this weekend over the fabulous West Cork roads as a ‘warm up’ for themselves and a ‘shake down’ for their cars. The rally certainly isn’t all about these stars, there’s a solid entry of National drivers to provide all sorts of interest. The overall Dunlop National Champions title may have gone to Aaron MacHale, and the GPN category to Michael Curran, but there are still a lot of classes and runner-up spots to be decided. The overall 023 Tiles Southern Four title is still very much up for grabs. Kevin O’Donoghue, who is suffering the effects of flu, heads the points, but there are several drivers, including Mark Nangle, Kevin Kelleher and Tim McNulty who could snatch the title from under the Killarney man’s nose. Interestingly O’Donoghue is not running his Lancer in Group N as he has a big turbo restrictor fitted.
For No.1 seed Eugene Donnelly there are no worries about championships here in Skibbereen. For Eugene the name of the game is to bed himself in to his new Skoda Octavia. Paddy Toner is co-driving instead of Paul Kiely, which is an extra dimension for Eugene, so almost certainly he will not be worrying too much about winning the Rally, more about getting the suspension and differentials of his Skoda set just to his liking. One small extra difficulty for Eugene is that he made his notes on Thursday, a warm dry day, a bit of a contrast to this weekend’s wet weather. Eugene was already committed on Saturday to a Subaru customer day.
We are honoured indeed to have Andreas Mikkelsen and his co-driver Ola Floene competing in their Focus WRC. Andreas, who is still at college in Norway, is driving his older Focus WRC here, but no doubt his preparation team, RamSport, will have the car like a new one anyway! RamSport is also running the Norwegian driver Eyvind Brynildsen, who starts at 18 in his Lancer and has Damien Connolly co-driving this time. Eyvind is, like Andreas, tipped to be a future world rally star. This is however his first Irish rally, so we’ll not expect too much too soon.
Tim McNulty is at 3 in his Pierse backed Subaru and Tim could well be the man to beat here today. He has won a couple of the National rallies this season, and although he is still finalising the suspension of his Subaru, he should be well up for it here. Eamonn Boland is a non starter. Young Welshman Gareth Jones is taking a break from the World Championship and he starts at 5 in his Subaru. At 6 is Ray Breen with his Focus, and he showed flashes of his old form on the Cork ‘20’, which if he keeps it all together here, could spell a good result. Kevin Barrett is at 7 in the Triton Showers Subaru. Kevin has already clinched 3rd overall in the Dunlop National series, and has decided here in Skibbereen to try a ‘two pass recce’, as per the WRC rules, in preparation for Sligo next month. Melvyn Evans, P.J. McGrath and Denis Cronin, all in Subaru WRC’s, round off the top ten, and on their day any of these three could be in contention. At 11 is James O’Sullivan. James has Brian Duggan co-driving. This time last year the pair tried an Impreza WRC for the first time, and finished 4th overall. This is their 2nd time in a McKinstry Subaru, and they will be hoping to go at least one better this time, but that will be a tall order in this company! Interestingly, James has been building a new house this year, and swore he was going to give rallying a miss, but the temptation was too great!
Highest seeded GpN crew is Kevin and Martin Kelleher in their Lancer, fresh from winning the Baltinglass Rally, and although they are from Clonakilty and can be considered to be on their home turf here, they will come under serious pressure for GpN honours, with Alan Ring, Willie Fannin, Ian Barrett, Keith Cronin, Owen Murphy and this young Norwegian Brynildsen, just some sure to be having a go. An extra incentive for Fannin and Barrett is GpN runner up spot on the Dunlop series. Anthony O’Halloran in his Manta is the top contender in the two wheel drive stakes, and with the likes of Escort drivers Wesley Patterson, Trevor Mulligan and Gerry Cassidy on his tail, Anthony will have to look to his laurels if he is to hold on to his class lead in the Dunlop.
There are lots of changes to the entry list in the programme, just a few of which include Eamonn Boland (4) non-starting. Sean Gallagher: Brian O’Mahony: David Long: Frank Wray: Mike Bird and John Hickey also not making the start. Co-drivers slotted in include David Moynihan with Gareth Jones, Paul Walsh with Eoin Doyle, Fionn Foley with Thomas Fitzmaurice, Ger Healy with Tadgh Linehan in the BMW, David Kearney with Philip Cross. Moved up in the running order is Owen Murphy, to slot in behind Fannin, keeping 76 on his Lancer. Gwyn Thomas, with Greg McCarthy co-driving in the Cosworth 4x4 Puma, slots in to the Thirties, but keeps the number 63. Clonakilty’s John Buttimer running No.159 on his Subaru starts behind Paul Elliott in the forties. Frank O’Mahony & Hughie McPhillips are OOing in the Metro 6R4.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
