Important Late News - see end of Irish Notes.

Conditions on last weekend’s Wales Rally GB may have been a bit unpredictable, but Sebastien Ogier’s performance in his VW through the Welsh forests was the model of speed and consistency – it was a World Rally Champion display. His team mate Latvala pushed very hard, extremely hard, but never rattled the Champion and it was Latvala who eventually made a mistake and finished 8th. Mikkelsen in the other VW team car showed flashes of brilliance but paid a heavy price when his car just caught a small rock outcrop on the exit of a corner. The crunching noise could probably have been heard back in his homeland of Norway. That put Andreas into Rally 2 and some fastest times were spoilt a little when he crashed his VW into retirement. So, it was Mikko Hirvonen in his M-Sport Fiesta who finished an emotional 2nd place and started his retirement with the fondest of memories. Mads Ostberg drove a gritty rally to take 3rd in his Citroen DS3WRC and Neuville was 4th for Hyundai.

Unfortunately Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle had to accept the bitter pill of 6th at the finish, when a podium place looked to fairly certain. However an off road excursion down a ditch on the final morning led to puncture problems and dropped Kris and Paul down the order. Once again Kris, even without a pre-event test session, showed remarkable speed and determination. It is just a matter of tying it all together now, although the professionalism, the expertise, the budget commitment of the VW team is all of the highest order and will be extremely hard for anybody to beat in the near-term. Kris and Paul have been signed by Citroen for 2015 so they have every opportunity to beat the Volkswagens!

It is rumoured as well that Loeb may be back in the Citroen Rally team for Monte Carlo, but then of course rumours are cheap, it takes real money to buy drink!

In all, including Meeke/Nagle, there were, remarkably, 10 crews from here entered. Seven made the finish; there were two retirements due to mechanical problems, and one non-starter, of which more later. Apologies if we have missed anybody!

Philip Morrow/Jonny Hart had a brilliant run in their Lancer to finish 22nd o/a and finish ‘best production’. Lisburn based oil distribution man Philip said afterwards. ‘A great event, glad to get back behind the wheel again and dust off the cobwebs`. Former Pirelli Star Driver Philip hasn’t done a rally since last year’s Wales Rally GB. Philip continued. “The car survived well through the stages and it was great to finish trouble free. Thanks to all who helped and supported!” What is all the more remarkable about Philip’s drive is that it really was the epitome of ‘low cost’. His recce car for example is an old Subaru Lancer estate car that he saw abandoned in a farmer’s field. He persuaded the farmer to sell it to him for £80. Mind you, the roof is still a bit dented with the kids in the field jumping on it! Seriously though, great drive from Philip, very relaxed and he never put a wheel wrong.

Next on our roll of honour is Alastair Fisher/Gordon Noble. In their DS3R3T they finished best of the Junior World Rally Championship drivers, their 2nd event in a row to take the honours. They led the category from start to finish on Wales Rally GB, and made no mistakes. It really was a brilliant drive by Alastair and but for the cruellest of luck earlier this year he would have been Junior World Rally Champion. But then, how many times has this happened in rallying? Nobody however can take it away from Alastair and Gordon that they drove brilliantly at times this year against world class opposition and they do have the satisfaction of being runner-up in the Championship, just 1 point away from the top slot. Alastair feels that he is now ready for a step up to FIA WRC2 Championship.

Josh Moffett/John Rowan (Lancer N) finished 27th and 3rd in the production category. For 22 year old Josh, tackling his first WRC event was a big undertaking, but he certainly took it in his stride. The event was the equivalent of about 4 to 5 Bushwhacker rallies all rolled into one. Josh kept his head very much in gear, listened to Gerry McGarrity’s advice, kept everything in perspective and used his head as the stages developed big ruts in places. With a few stages to go Josh’s Lancer suffered a broken front differential but he locked the diffs on his Lancer and persevered through the final few miles, albeit having to drop a couple of minutes. But when he was going well Josh was able to get close to Phillip Morrow’s times, which was heartening. This week Josh is to face up to the Billy Coleman Awards interviews.

Brendan Cumiskey/Conor Foley (Impreza WRX Sti) - Dundalk VW dealer Brendan got a new Subaru GpN for the event, and despite a few narrow squeaks achieved a very respectable finish.

Carryduff’s Jonny Greer, co-driven by Kirsty Riddick in his DS3R3T had a more than respectable finish, particularly as his FWD car suffered a couple of punctures early in the event. It was noticeable that Jonny, who hasn’t done a proper gravel rally since last year, upped his speed a lot towards the end of the rally.

Dean Raftery/Karl Atkinson in their Fiesta R2 finished 2nd in the category to Chris Ingram (Peugeot R2), which was no mean achievement. Dean was seeded just a few from the end, so didn’t have the best of track conditions and actually got stuck in a rut at the start of Dyfi stage. The young Galway man commented afterwards. “Really enjoyed the event, paced myself to gain experience.” Dean’s thoughts switched of course as soon as the rally was over to preparations for this week’s Billy Coleman Award interviews.

Marty McCormack/John Higgins in their Fiesta R5 also had a torrid time on the rally. It was nearly case of if anything could go wrong it did. The power steering broke a couple of times. He had to change the differential settings because he couldn’t get the car to work. A puncture led to an off road interlude. The intercom stopped working and the steering column fell out. A new steering rack was required on the Saturday afternoon, so he missed the night stages. By this time they were very much in Rally 2. Marty didn’t lose heart and attacked the final day’s stages with gusto. He fitted softer front springs and changed the diff settings for the very slippy stages. He had a spin on the penultimate stage, but was happy ‘to be in the mix’. Then on the final stage, 4km from the finish, the crankshaft broke, end of engine, end of rally. Marty was soon up the road, back to work on one of their sites in Scotland, but commented before getting on the digger. “It wasn’t just a bad rally for us, it was a bad rallying year!” Marty did take time out before the start of the rally to take his sponsors, ‘TigerRisk’ for a spin in the rally car and he is hopeful they will stick with him next year.

Daniel McKenna/Arthur Kierans – This was a difficult event for the new British Rally Champions as a stone got wedged in their Citroen DS3R3T’s fan belt idler and this knocked the belt off. Daniel refitted the belt in the stage, but it kept coming off until the idler seized. They rejoined under Rally 2 rules and were going well, in fact brilliantly at times, but then their car ran out of fuel on the way back to service on the Saturday evening and they decided to call it a day. It was an unfortunate end to their Championship year, but these things happen.

Interestingly, Daniel’s main opponent for the British title was young Osian Pryce and he had a brilliant run on Wales Rally GB. This was Osian’s first drive in a four-wheel drive machine, a Fiesta R5. Admittedly the Friday’s fast flowing classic Welsh stages were on his home ground, but still Osian produced the sort of speed that opened a fair few experienced eyes. It was evident when Osian won the Ulster Rally last year that he was a bit special. Daniel McKenna bettered him this season, but it was a very hard battle, and indeed underestimated by some. For Daniel now it is regroup time and hopefully his plans to go JWRC in 2015 come to fruition.

Finally, from one ‘oh dear’ to another – Calvin Beattie/Martin Brady worked hard at their recce, while back at Calvin’s home in Newry his team was just as busy fitting a new engine to his Fiesta. Unfortunately the new engine flatly refused to fire up. After much frustration it was discovered that there was some obscure electrical fault behind the throttle body. Several parties, including DGM and Gerry McGarrity, offered parts, but it was too late, the car missed the ferry and its scrutiny slot. As Martin Brady commented, “As you know, it is not like home, there is no Sunday morning scrutiny on the WRC. We were out before we began. Took it on the chin and went spectating!”

Closer to home, the Dunlop National Rally Championship in the Sheraton Athlone Hotel on Saturday night was a huge success. Indeed, over the fourteen years that Dunlop have backed the National series, not only has the rallying been good, the prizegivings have been outstanding! Top Award on the night went of course to double champions, Tarmac and National, Declan and Brian Boyle. There was a tremendous atmosphere on the night, but it was poignant as well, because of course Dunlop is standing down as sponsors. The tyre company will continue to be involved with many aspects of Irish motorsport but Triton Showers through Kevin Barrett’s company will now sponsor the National Championship. Kevin has been a long time competitor in the National series, both as a quick man in his Escorts and then for many seasons in his Subarus. He intends to keep on competing as well as sponsoring the series. Of course with all his experience Kevin can be relied on to bring an extra dimension to the Triton Showers National series. One of his ideas is to look at the possibility of running a Power Stage. Certainly that is an interesting idea.

When Declan Boyle had collected his award, he commented, “It’s a fine Cup, like an old girl friend! I’ll maybe give it a rattle for three wins in a row!” However Declan is a man with his feet firmly on the ground, and he then commented, “But we’ll take it one day at a time!” Declan, who turned 40 a day or two ago, flies out from his Donegal base to England on a Monday to run his large licensed trade business. He generally gets back to Belfast International on a Thursday night and goes straight on up to Donegal to be with his wife Michelle and family, 2 boys and a girl. He is a quite extraordinary man, brilliant driver, very straight. Rallying is his hobby. He leaves the professional stuff to his brother in law Kris Meeke. Declan relies solely on our Patterson DVDs and notes. It doesn’t seem to be doing him any harm!

Second in the Championship was another amazing man, Roy White. With James O’Brien co-driving on most events, Roy drove superbly all season. In theory his MG S2000 shouldn’t have been fit to mix it with the WRC machinery, but on rally after rally he claimed podium places. As well as 2nd in the Dunlop, Roy was presented with the Michael Farrell Award by Mickey`s widow Breda. Third overall in the series was Steve Wood/Keith Moriarity. Steve surprised a lot of people with his speed through the year, and he received the ‘Drive of the Championship’ from compere Martin Walsh. Niall Maguire was presented with Spirit of the Championship Trophy, while his son Shane along with Stephen Thornton collected the Motorsport Safety Team National GpN Award. Frank Kelly was the recipient of the much sought after Rally.ie National Award as well as the Mk2 Champion Trophy.

Just some of the special guests at the function included former champion Patrick Elliott, while Hugh Hunter/Andy Marchbank, as well as former Champion Melvyn Evans made the trip from Wales. Despite it being on Rally Wales GB weekend, the evening provided a real plethora of rallying personalities. It was a brilliant evening, with well over 300 people sitting down to the meal. There were many, many class awards given out as well. All in all a brilliant evening, and fair play to Richard Talbot and Laura Fuery-McMenamin and their team for the huge amount of work they must have put in just to make it happen, let alone the flair to make it so enjoyably successful.

This weekend there is a very attractive small forest rally over in Grizedale – really good stages and a nice friendly rally. The North Armagh Club’s motorsport quiz was to take place on Friday night, but that has been cancelled because the quiz organiser is ill. North Armagh Motor Club`s William Fullerton hopes to run the quiz, which is supported by PaceNotes Magazine, early in the New Year.

The Valvoline Forestry Championship Prizegiving is taking place in Clonmel on Saturday Night, at the Clonmel Park Hotel, and that promises to be a good night. The best person to contact for further info on the prizegiving and next year’s series is new chairman Ray Fitzpatrick on 00 353 85 1516229.

Disturbing news is that next year’s Jim Clark Rally has been cancelled, because of some difficulties following the fatalities on this year’s event. It did appear that the rally would go ahead in 2015, but there has been a snag.

Here at home next weekend’s Killarney Historic Rally (Sat 29th November) is shaping up to have a very good entry. The rally is the opening counter in the Clonakilty Blackpudding Tarmac Historic Championship. Interesting, the Tarmac Championship organisers have announced that, in line with the FIA, the championship will now allow cars such as the BMW M3 and Sierra Cosworth, from the period 1986 -1990 to run in Historic K category, starting in January 2015. Time moves on!

An amended set of British Rally Championship Points has been issued by the MSA which show that Newry’s Calvin Beattie has been promoted to 3rd o/a in the British Championship, and is the winner of R2, the Fiesta Trophy and the Newcomers Trophy. Galway’s Dean Raftery has now slipped back from 3rd to 5th . The correction was necessary because points were awarded erroneously to Raftery following his accident on the ‘double header’ Manx and subsequently running in Rally 2.