| RALLY NEWS NO.1 Tullyglass Hotel/Saturday 09.00
‘Too close to call’ is the verdict this morning, not just on this Townparks Rally, but also as to who will wear the NI Rally Champion’s crown at the end of the day, so closely poised are the points positions at the top. The crown boils down to a straight fight between Glenn Allen in his Corolla and Stephen Moore in his Focus WRC. Drivers who could split them or thwart them include Seamus Devine and Raymond Johnston, both in Subaru WRC’s. All in all the rally, with the Townparks Vauxhall name making a welcome return as title sponsor, should provide a memorable day! Seamus Devine has the No.65 on his Subaru, but will run No.1 on the road. Well, not quite first, as there are a dozen small engined front wheel drive cars running ahead of his Impreza WRC, spearheaded by Jonny Greer in his UK Fiesta Sporting Trophy winning Ford ST150. Hopefully the small cars ahead will not distract Devine, who will be out to try and make it a hat-trick of wins through the Glens of Antrim Stages.
Glenn Allen will run 2nd of the ‘big cars’ but keep the No.1 on his Toyota’s doors, Glenn hoping that his re-built Corolla WRC shows no signs of any minor glitches, and also of course that his run of bad luck has run its course. Stephen Moore runs with 2 on his Focus, Stephen looking remarkably fresh and relaxed last night when he signed on at Townparks Vauxhall garage in Antrim. Stephen put this down partly that he had been off work for a couple of days, between testing and nipping over to M-Sport to buy spares for the Focus. “I think we have a spare everything” he reported, not entirely joking. He also told of testing the car earlier this week at Fivemiletown, and that it had gone well.
In Championship terms, it is so close between Moore and Allen, that it is really down to who finishes with their nose in front, but if they aren’t in the first two or three places it will probably be Allen who takes it. First they have to finish. Moore has already won the Southern Hankook backed series, so he’s not likely to get fazed by any pressure, whereas Allen’s season has taken a nosedive recently, and he seems to have tried hard not to win the Championship! Raymond Johnston’s last NI Championship outing on the Enniskillen Lakelands ended disastrously with his new Subaru stuck in a bog. Then the Ballinamallard man went to the little Ballyboley event and won, which cheered him up. Raymond’s co-driver Richard Bell got a fair shake in that Fermanagh accident, but Richard has been on holiday in Lanzarote, just flew back yesterday, and looks as fresh as a daisy!
John and Mandy McKeown are next up in their Escort Cosworth WRC. Then its Charleville man James Murphy in a similar car, this time with Tommy Speers on the notes with him for the first time. Nobody knows these forest roads better than Tommy, so it will be interesting to see how they get on. Certainly, James really wants to get his Dominic McNeill prepared Escort Cosworth to the finish line back at the Tullyglass Hotel today. Richard Hogg is at 6 in his Skoda. Colm McFall (Escort Cosworth) is at 7, Kevin O’Kane (Subaru) at 8, Donegal man Hugh Martin Doherty was seeded at 9 but unfortunately will not be starting.
Eoin McErlean is at 10. Kilrea man Eoin drives a GpN Lancer and is in with a chance of taking the GpN title. His main rival for the title is Ian Cochrane, the pair tying in the GPN points race. There are a stack more GpN drivers who could grab the limelight today including Fermanagh man Howard Clarke, Dungannon’s Enda McNulty, John Walker from Hillsborough, transport man Alan Carmichael from Ballymena, Townparks’ Martin Elliott in a hired David Greer Lancer, David Crossen and a whole lot more. Shaun Reid is at 37 in his Lancer and has Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly co-driving today. Waterford man Andrew Purcell starts at 11 in his Subaru, and he is another who has been involved in a last minute rush to get his car ready, the engine being re-built by Kenny McKinstry. Martin Cairns in his GpA Subaru rounds off the top dozen in his GpA Subaru.
There are at least half a dozen drivers whose entries weren’t received in time for the initial entry list in the programme, and as well as Sean Devine, whom we have already mentioned, Paul Britton in his GpN Subaru has the number 67 and starts inside the top twenty, and Damien Tourish in his GpN Lancer starts in the mid twenties. William Mavitty was amongst those late numbers, but his Lancer has suffered a damaged gearbox and he is non-starting. Seamus O’Connell is another of those later numbers. His Escort has had the engine rebuilt in Holland, and Seamus starts behind the Bob Riddles Mk2 Escort at 32. Limerick’s Mark Sheahan starts at 44 in his fabulous Renault Clio, and Mark, who is tackling his first forest rally, has Keith Cronin’s co-driver Anthony O’Conail sitting in this time. Highest seeded Mk 2 Escort drivers are James Kennedy (28), Alastair Cochrane (29), Marty McCormack, who raised his suspension for this one, at 30, and Drew Stewart at 31.
More news from the end of Slieveanorra. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
