Last weekend’s win on the Stonethrowers by Brian O’Mahony, with Thomas Fitzmaurice 2nd, certainly keeps the situation at the top of the Dunlop National Championship bubbling. Niall Maguire, having led the rally, was unfortunate to have to retire when his Subaru suffered a damaged wheel stud. However Niall is still very much in the Championship mix. Currently Fitzmaurice leads the points with 90; O’Mahony has 76 and Maguire 68. When dropped scores come into play towards season’s end, the situation could be a lot closer.

On the rally, although O’Mahony led after the first stage, he lost a couple of seconds on stage 2 with a spin in the wet conditions. This allowed former multiple National Champion Niall Maguire to lead through stages 2 & 3, but then came retirement at service. The wheel studs are critical on an Impreza WRC, as they are hollow and finely tuned to the stresses involved.

Kevin Barrett, who normally would be a front runner in the series, has been having a fairly miserable Championship run this year. The Maynooth man had further misfortune when he crashed his Impreza out of this rally on the 3rd stage.

From stage 4 onwards O’Mahony had a clear run to take victory by 43 seconds. Thomas Fitzmaurice had a slow opening stage, and although he had a couple of equal fastest times through the day, in general O’Mahony had the edge. Colm Murphy had another very impressive drive, always up with the leaders, to win GpN.
Roy White’s Ford Mountune engined MG S2000 was a little low geared for some of the faster sections, although he has upped the final drive a little. However, following a ‘cautious’ start the former GpN Tarmac champion worked his way up to 4th place with a fine drive, which earned him the ‘Dunlop Drive of the Day’ award.

Sam and Josh Moffett, the two young brothers from Monaghan, had a massive battle in their respective Lancers through the early stages for 2nd in GpN. However Josh, having got up to 4th o/a, retired on stage 5. He got caught out on a slippy patch and put his Lancer off the road. This let Billy Coleman Award winner Sam into 2nd in GpN. Sam was conservative in his tyre choice, his main aim to warm up for the Ulster. Martin Doherty then held 3rd in the category but he retired his Lancer in stage 7, which let Shane Maguire into 3rd GpN with his Impreza.

Highest placed Escort at the finish was Adrian Hetherington’s model, taking a fine 6th o/a. Frank Kelly was fastest Escort man through the opening stage, but his example broke a half-shaft at a chicane just a few hundred yards before the finish of the 2nd stage. This was particularly galling for Kelly, as he is meticulous in his preparation and had fitted new shafts for the event.

Kevin Kelleher, another former GpN Champion, improved slowly throughout the day to finish 8th. Kevin recently switched from GpN to an ex Conor McCloskey Impreza WRC and is still settling with the car. Desi Henry in his Citroen DS3R3 found the conditions slippy for his front wheel drive Citroen but had a reasonably good day as well as a warm up for the Ulster Rally and finished 9th, just ahead of Stephen Wright. Tommy Doyle was 11th and Jonny Greer 13th in their respective Citroens, while Mark Donnelly could only manage 14th in his Clio as he struggled with the set-up on his Renault.

On Den Golding’s Neath Valley stages there was a reminder of the old adage that the cream always rises to the top when David Llewellin came out of rally retirement to take victory on the historic section from Juha Kankkunen, both in Mk2 Escorts. Dilwyn Davies won the regular rally, driving a Geoff Jones GpA Impreza.

This weekend it’s the turn of the Todds Leap Ulster Rally, which is basically five different events under the one banner. First rally on the road, starting on Friday after lunch, is the BRC part, under the Rally NI banner. The Ulster Rally, for the Tarmac Championship contenders including the World Rally Cars, will be hot on their heels. The Historics start behind the main two leading rallies on the Friday and Saturday morning, but miss out the final two stages on the itinerary. The National misses the first loop on the Friday evening and then shadow the Historics on the Saturday. Slotted into the mix will be the Challenge Rally. All in all it is an exciting prospect. The BRC part of the rally features drivers such as Keith Cronin, Tom Cave, Mark Donnelly, Tommy Doyle and Desi Henry in Class 5, or R3 cars. Elfyn Evans, who drives a class 6 ‘R2’ Fiesta, remarkably jointly leads the Championship with Tom Cave in his Citroen DSR3t. Also in R2 cars will be Alastair Fisher (Fiesta), former Champion Guy Wilks (Renault), Jukka Korhonen (Skoda) – and that’s just a taster. Also part of the Rally NI is the Citroen Racing Trophy Ireland. This features drivers such as points leader Kevin O’Connor, along with David Carney and former two times Citroen Champion Adrian McElhinney. Robert Barrable was hoping to run his brother’s C2R2, but reportedly the car may not be ready. The Citroen prize money for 1st will be stepped up from €3,5000 to 5,000 if the top C2R2Max can also win the class.

The Irish Tarmac Championship Ulster Rally has Derek McGarrity at the top of the list, with Donegal winner Garry Jennings, Tarmac points leader Darren Gass, and Killarney winner Daragh O’Riordan in close attendance. The list of Impreza WRC’s is interrupted by the Focus WRC of Steve Perez. After that are four GpN Lancers, in the hands of Sam Moffett, Josh Moffett, Stephen Wright and Willie Mavitty. Not a huge entry, but certainly very interesting. Presumably, although not for sure, Derek McGarrity, if he finishes the course, will be eligible for NI Championship points for his performance over the stages that the National contenders are doing. It will be touch and go as to whether Josh Moffett’s Lancer can be readied following last weekend’s Stonethrowers accident. Stephen Wright is driving Garry Jenning’s Lancer, and in a roundabout way could help Garry’s Tarmac aspirations. This morning (Wed) when we spoke to Garry on the phone at his oil depot he told us, “I’m sitting here with the feet up on the desk having a cup of coffee with Keith Cronin. I’m going for a run in Kenny’s car tonight, (the McGaffin car) maybe in Donegal. When I get that over I’ll maybe feel a bit more settled.” Daragh O’Riordan, speaking from Midleton this morning said – “You’d need a boat to get out of Cork this morning. Hopefully it will dry out a bit and we can get a run in the car this afternoon, and then head up North this evening. I’m looking forward to it now, the Ulster is always a good rally.” Yes indeed, the battle of the WRC’s looks fascinating.

On the rally horizon is next weekend’s Rally Germany, as well as the Galway Summer and Magherafelt MC’s Sunset Rally. Brigid Donnelly, CoC of the Sunset, reports a slow but steady influx of entries, but obviously she would like more! Just some of the names in so far include Enda McNulty in his Subaru, as well as Seamus O’Connor and Viv Hamill in Escorts.