Last weekend there were two main stage rallies in Ireland, the Tyrone Stages on Saturday, where Peadar Hurson came out on top, while on Sunday Gary Kiernan took victory on the Imokilly Stages. The Tyrone Stages was round 5 of the McGrady Insurance NI Stage Championship, and there was disappointment when current NI Champion and leading points scorer Derek McGarrity non started, having sold his Subaru. That is what Derek does for a living of course, so fair play to him!

Peadar Hurson had Damien Connolly co-driving in his Formula Karting backed Subaru. Hurson didn’t spare the horses over the event’s 6 challenging stages over Barnes Gap/Rousky terrain through the Sperrins. There was a massively exciting battle between Frank Kelly and Camillus Bradley in their respective Escorts for 2nd and 3rd places. Frank was fastest of the two on the opening stage, Camillus had the edge on the 2nd. This tussle went on through the day and Kelly had to pull out all the stops and a bit more to finish just a few seconds ahead of Camillus in the race for 2nd and 3rd.

There was also a tremendous battle for the Carryduff Forklift R2 Wales section of the rally. Rob Duggan, having bought a new Peugeot R2 just before the rally, drove superbly to score maximum points. Jon Armstrong was mixing it with Duggan but put his Peugeot off the road in stage 5. This left Duggan able to relax a little through the final stage, but still finished a brilliant 4th o/a. Alan Smyth was 2nd R2 home, although 13th o/a having suffered an early puncture. Still, although Duggan leads the Road to Wales points, Smyth is not so far behind. GpN on the rally was won by Clive Kilpatrick, from Simon Woodside, both in Lancers. Geoff McMahon finished a little further back on this occasion, his Lancer’s differential showing ‘zilch’ hydraulic pressure.

Seamus O’Connell/Sean Magee had a great run to 7th and best Historic, winning class 10 from Keith McIvor in his Porsche. Keith really struggled with his 911’s front suspension over the bumpy stages, although he did get it sorted for the later ones. Stephen Mawhinney won the other historic class in his Sunbeam Lotus. Stanley Orr crashed his Mk1 Escort out on the opening stage, most ‘un-Stanley like!’ Declan McNaughton, running in the main rally had early suspension worries with his Escort and then crashed out in stage 2. There was a spectator caught up in the accident, and fortunately there were no serious injuries. Ryan Loughran put his Escort in a stage 1 ditch for many minutes, got going and then through the rest of the day set some brilliant times, on the same level as the best Escorts.

POC NI Oils Tyrone Stages
1st Peadar Hurson/Damien Connolly (Impreza WRC) 37.30.8
2nd Frank Kelly/David Vance (Escort) 38.27.7
3rd Camillus Bradley/Crawford Henderson (Escort) 38.31.4
4th Rob Duggan/Ger Conway (Peugeot 208) 40.06.1
5th Damian Toner/Martin Toner (Escort) 40.23.9
6th Enda McNulty/Paul Sheridan (Escort) 40.33.4
7th Seamus O’Connell/Sean Magee (Escort) 40.45.7
8th Rodney White/Evin Hughes (Sunbeam) 41.06.3
9th Alastair Cochrane/Paddy McCrudden (Escort) 41.11.3
10th Shane McGirr/Aaron Johnson (Starlet) 41.12.8

Class winners: Class 1 Michael McCarroll/Ronnie Craig (Fiesta), Class 2 Clive Kilpatrick/Conor McGinnity (Lancer Evo 9), Class 3 Conor Cochrane/Michael Johnston (Escort), Class 4 Rob Duggan/Ger Conway (Peugeot 208), Class 5 Stephen McFerran/Martin McBrearty (Escort), Class 6 Rodney White/Evin Hughes (Sunbeam), Class 7 Frank Kelly/David Vance (Escort), Class 8 Peadar Hurson/Damian Connolly (Impreza WRC), Class 9 Matthew McAllister/Christopher McGhee (Impreza), Class 10 Stephen Mawhinney/Nigel Magee (Sunbeam), Class 11 Seamus O’Connell/Sean Magee (Escort).

On Sunday at the Imokilly Stages, Cavan’s Gary Kiernan, with James Fulton co-driving in his Escort, scored a notable win. George Condell/Michael Coady in their Starlet made a great race of it, but had to settle for 2nd. Denis Cronin, driving his Impreza WRC, which hadn’t seen rally action for a while, had Coleman Hurley co-driving and was 3rd.

The rally started in dramatic fashion, when 3rd on the road Ed Murphy crashed his Escort on the opening stage and temporarily blocked the road. This meant that 7 cars, including the eventual top three finishers were shown as tied for the lead after stage 1. In stage 2 Denis Cronin was fastest from Kiernan, with last year’s winner Wesley Patterson 3rd. The format of the rally was two good stages, Ballycurane and Mount Street, 14.6km and 15.8km, through soft rolling countryside. There was then service in Dungarvan, before the stage was repeated twice.

Early morning dampness cleared for the middle loop, but several of the top runners fell by the wayside, including Wesley Patterson (engine), Trevor Mulligan had taken 3rd following Patterson’s demise, but Mulligan’s Escort succumbed to a broken steering arm when the car slid wide on a ‘5Right’. Brian O’Keefe/Sean Hayde retired from 5th and the GpN lead when their Impreza suffered a reported transmission problem.

At service after stage 4, George Condell had drawn level with Gary Kiernan to tie for the lead. Then over the final two stages, with the weather closing in, Kiernan was able to draw clear to win by 6.6s. Denis Cronin kept a steady pace and finished 3rd. Ed O’Callaghan recovered from 6th place to finish 4th and David Guest did well to finish 5th and win GpN. Although it did get wet for the final two stages, fortunately enough it started while the cars were still in service so the drivers were able to get onto the correct tyres. Gary Kiernan commented at the finish, “the car cut out a couple of times on the opening stage, but then we came to the blockage that meant that we were given the notional time, which was lucky enough. We switched off the heated rear screen and the car never missed a beat for the rest of the day. Then on the stage before the end we ran wide at a junction and were lucky to get away with it. But it was a case then of win it or bin it!’

Great Stuff Catering Imokilly Stages Top Ten:-
1st Gary Kiernan/James Fulton (Escort) 48m35s
2nd George Condell/Michael Coady (Starlet) +06.6s
3rd Denis Cronin/Coleman Hurley (Impreza WRC) +33.7s
4th Ed O’Callaghan/Charlie McEnery (Escort) +1m.33.9s
5th David Guest/Frank Curtin (Lancer N) +1m42.1s
6th Jason Ryan/Peter Falvey (Starlet) +2m19.2s
7th Mark Dolphin/Finbar Quirke (Escort) +2m42.6s
8th Tom Flaherty/Patrick Curley (Escort) +2m49.9s
9th Eddie Power/Mark Bowens (Corolla) +3m37.8s
10th Neil Tohill/Gerard Tohill (Lancer) +4m13.0s

Class 1 Brian O’Mahony/Michelle Galwey (Civic); Class 2 Ed Toomey/Sean Hassett (Fiesta); Class 3 John Bagge/JP Ruth (Peugeot 306); Class 4 David Guest/Frank Curtin (Lancer); Class 6 James Whelan/Keith Power (Civic); Class 7 Greg McCarthy/John O’Toole (Impreza); Class 8 Jason Ryan/Peter Falvey (Starlet); Class 9 Roland Doherty/PJ O’Dowd (Nova); Class 10 Niall Fitzpatrick/Gary Fitzpatrick (Escort); Class 11F Jason Ryan/Peter Falvey (Starlet); Class 11R Allen Treacy/Bob Fitzgerald (Corolla GT); Class 12 Alan Commins/Kevin Corcoran (Peugeot 205 RWD); Class 13 Gary Kieran/James Fulton (Escort); Class 14 Mark Dolphin/Finbar Quirke (Escort); Class 15 Denis Cronin/Coleman Hurley (Impreza WRC); Class 16 Aaron O’Regan/Derek Butler (Civic); Class 18 Donal O’Connor/Derry Long (Escort); Class 20 Jim Butler/TBA (Lancer).

Also last weekend, Dessie Nutt and Geraldine McBride were competing on the Harry Flatters in Wales. They had carburettor problems when a linkage broke, and they lost a lot of time, but recovered over the afternoon to take the category win.

Looking forward to this weekend the rally action at home shifts to Ballykelly and the Maiden City Club’s Dogleap Rally, while further afield the World Rally Championship swings back into action on Rally Finland. Starting from Jyvaskyla, the Finnish rally will again consist of some of the fastest gravel stages in the championship, with swoops and jumps aplenty to make for some of most exciting, challenging and scary rally action in the world. The Russian driver Alexey Lukyanuk has already found to his cost that the terrain can catch you out, as he wrecked his Fiesta WRC in a testing accident before the recce started. Russian Champion Lukyanuk was here for the Circuit earlier this year and finished 6th. He also won Estonia a few weeks ago, driving a Lancer. Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle normally go well on the Finnish stages, and Kris will certainly be looking for a top result this weekend, for himself and Citroen. Kris’s team mate will once again be Mads Ostberg. Indeed, there are no surprises amongst the top teams, VW, M-Sport and Hyundai.

Latvala won this rally last year for VW, but really this Finnish Grand Prix through the forests is the rally all the top drivers want so much to win so the competition is certain to be frenetic. Monaghan’s Daniel McKenna, with Andrew Grennan co-driving in his Citroen DS3 R3T is seeded 3rd amongst the Junior World Championship drivers, but Daniel will have his work cut out to make an impression on this extremely specialised rally. Waterford’s Craig Breen does have quite a bit of Finnish forest experience and, driving the Santeloc Peugeot 208 T16 R5, has every chance of a good result here. Craig’s main focus this year is of course the European Championship, but competing in Finland can only be good in keeping him sharp. Craig and co-driver Scott Martin contest the RC2 category, which has a very strong entry, including last year’s Circuit of Ireland winner Esapekka Lappi, this time in the new Skoda R5.

On the Dogleap, top drivers include Martin Cairns in his Impreza WRC, Alan McGeehan, who may drive one of the Mini WRC’s, depending on how a test goes, Joe McGonigle in his Skoda S2000 and PJ McDermott in his Impreza WRC. Derek McGarrity has entered, but is unsure if he will make it or in what car. Derek’s Impreza WRC is sold to a French driver and Derek is reportedly bringing in a very nice Subaru R4. However he hasn’t actually driven this car as yet and it will only be arriving here late Thursday, so it is all a bit tight. The Dogleap has received a great entry of two wheel drive machinery, including drivers such as Alastair Cochrane and Seamus O’Connell in Escorts. The rally is also a counter in the Junior 1000 series, which features some very good young drivers such as Peter Bennett (Citroen C1), Josh McErlean (Peugeot 107), Phillip White (Micra) and Michael McGarrity.

Also this weekend, the Tyneside Rally features stages over Otterburn. The event will be a counter in the REIS MSA Asphalt series and defending Champion Damian Cole will drive a new Fiesta WRC. The rally features a capacity 90 car entry, and behind Cole at No.2 is Steve Simpson in his Impreza WRC with Simon Mauger at 3 in his Metro 4M4.
Meanwhile in Fermanagh this Saturday the Enniskillen MC is running their Erne Trophy Sprint at St Angelo Airfield and a great variety of cars will be competing against the clock - cars ranging from Production machines through to Historics, race cars to sprint cars.

Looking further ahead, the Todds Leap Ulster Rally entry is filling up nicely and earlier this week over 90 crews had committed. In the National A category, as well as Donagh Kelly, Garry Jennings, Sam and Josh Moffett, all in WRC machinery, we have some interesting entries such as Stephen Wright in his Fiesta R5, Jonny Greer in a Citroen R5 and both Desi Henry and Joe McGonigle in S2000 cars. There is also an interesting selection of Historic cars in the National A section, while in the National B Derek McGeehan will drive his MINI WRC alongside many of the contenders from the NI Championship, which includes all manner of Escorts, Historics etc. It would seem that a driver, Derek McGarrity for example, can run in National A, but can still score NI Championship points.

Further news includes, the Hyland TV coverage of the Orchard Motorsport Lurgan Park Rally will be transmitted on Motors TV on Friday evening 31st July at 22.05 and TG4 on 6th August. Having seen a preview, it looks pretty good!