Last weekend’s Donegal Mini Stages turned out to be a great wee rally, despite Mother Nature throwing some inclement weather at the Donegal countryside fornenst Letterkenny.

Cavan man Jonathan Pringle started his 2016 rally campaign off in the best possible manner by taking his Millington engined Mk2 Escort to victory on this challenging event. Co-driven by Alan Keena, Jonathan’s victory margin was 16.6s over fellow Escort crew Ryan Loughran/James McCarville. Joe McGonigle/Ciaran Geaney in their Fabia S2000 pushed hard towards the end and were rewarded with 3rd. Aidan Wray/Kieran McGrath had a good run in their Lancer to win GpN.

The format of this ‘non-championship’ mini stages rally was two decent length quality asphalt stages, each done three times, with service at the Clanree Hotel in Letterkenny between each loop. The weather was difficult, especially initially, with sleet and snow affecting the roads.

The planned opening stage didn’t run, partly as a precaution because of the road conditions, but also because of a small glitch with the radio communications. This meant that, at first service, the crews had only completed one stage. Damien Tourish/Domnhall McAleaney in their 2 litre Mk2 Escort led from Ryan Loughran/James McCarville, also in an Escort. Tourish commented that it was slippy in places, but that he had no real trouble and perhaps the 2 litre, as against the 2.5 litre Escorts, was an advantage in the conditions.

Certainly some of the top drivers in the bigger engined cars had early dramas. Gary McPhillips, 2nd on the road, got caught out on a narrow slippy section between junctions 11 and 12, when a back wheel caught a ditch. The car slewed around and got stuck, a rear wheel puncture not helping the situation. Five cars got caught behind the blockage, including front runners such as Wesley Patterson, Brian Brogan and Jonathan Pringle.

Young Callum Devine in his Opel Adam was down in 22nd but still led his class. Callum had a brand new engine in his Opel and this was his first outing since last autumn. He was hampered on the stages by an array of flashing lights on his dashboard display. He was spending time on the stages pressing buttons in an effort to lay this display to rest! Further stories from the stages included Michael McCollum in the fabulous ex Toshi Arai Impreza WRC losing at least 10 secs when he spun the car to a standstill. He was still 12th o/a at first service but retired on the 2nd loop.

Gary McElhinney in his Escort had a massive overshoot at the cross-roads in stage 2, at the end of the 750 yard straight. Gary commented, “The spectators loved it. I should have braked before the crest into the cross-roads!” Anthony Cairns reported that his Impreza was suffering from a small misfire and also intercom problems, but he still held 8th o/a. Dual Tarmac and National Champion Donagh Kelly, with his son Eamonn co-driving in his Mk1 Escort, was having a ball and lying a very creditable 20th o/a as well as leading class 12.

For stage 3, most of the top drivers chose an open pattern ‘wet’ tyre to combat the slushy conditions. Jonathan Pringle had said after the opening stage that he thought he was on a good pace and felt comfortable, until he got stopped behind the Gary McPhillips’ accident. Pringle certainly reinforced that ‘good pace’ sentiment with a stunning run through stage 3. Subaru driver Frank Wray responded in stage 4 with a quickest time, but only by a fraction. Wray had spun his Subaru on an earlier stage, and commented that he was going to go on the ‘softest wet tyre’.

When the cars came into 2nd service Pringle led Wray by 5.8s, with Ryan Loughran still very much in the hunt and only a further 2.7s back. Donegal man Joe McGonigle in his Fabia S2000 couldn’t be discounted either, just another 6.7s in deficit. Joe did say though that, with next weekend’s Galway International in mind, he was trying to look after his Skoda. Aidan Wray in his Lancer led GpN, from the similar Mitsubishi of Pat Kirk.

On the penultimate stage Jonathan Pringle was again fastest and his previous closest pursuer Frank Wray retired his Subaru (broken wheel), to leave Ryan Loughran 2nd, 16.7s in arrears. Joe McGonigle held 3rd, just a further 3s back, despite overshooting the first junction and damaging the bumper and bonnet of his Fabia against a bale. This cost a few seconds, but Joe still set a good time so there was still plenty to play for over the final test. McGonigle did set fastest time in the final stage but stayed 3rd, although only 0.4s behind 2nd placed Ryan Loughran in his Escort. There was no denying Jonathan Pringle however, and he took a popular victory. Happily many of the top drivers got through the final stage with no problems, but a sudden snow shower caused a bit of mayhem with the later numbers.

Donegal Mini Stages Top Ten:-
1st Jonathan Pringle/Alan Keena (Ford Escort Mk2) 38m50.8s
2nd Ryan Loughran/James McCarville (Ford Escort Mk2) +16.6s
3rd Joe McGonigle/Ciaran Geaney (Skoda Fabia S2000) +17.0s
4th Brian Brogan/Damian McGettigan (Ford Escort) +40.0s
5th Damian Gallagher/Brendan McElhinney (Ford Escort) +48.1s
6th Camillus Bradley/Crawford Henderson (Ford Escort) +1m23.3s
7th Wesley Patterson/Johnny Baird (Ford Escort) +1m32.0s
8th Aidan Wray/Kieran McGrath (Mitsubishi Evo 10) +1m32.7s
9th John Bonner/Leon Jordan (Ford Escort) +1m49.9s
10th Paul Purtill/Raymond Scott (Ford Escort) +1m51.0s

Class Winners:-
1: Ruari McCafferty/Seamus McTigue (Honda Civic); 2: Callum Devine/Keith Moriarity (Opel Adam); 4: Aidan Wray/Kieran McGrath (Mitsubishi Evo 10); 5: Joe McGonigle/Ciaran Geaney (Soda Fabia S2000); 9: James Greenan/Alvin Alcorn (Opel Corsa); 10: Shane Carr/Ciaran Carr (Vauxhall Nova); 11F: Alan Smyth/Macartan Kierans (Suzuki Swift); 11R: Christy Gallagher/Lee Cullen (Toyota Starlet); 12: Donagh Kelly/Eamonn Kelly (Ford Escort); 13: John Bonner/Leon Jordan (Ford Escort Mk2); 14: Jonathon Pringle/Alan Keena (Ford Escort); 15: Andrew Stewart/Stephen Gallinagh (Mitsubishi Lancer); 16: Mark Murphy/Michael Hamilton (Honda Civic); 17: Harry Brown/Martin McGrath (Hillman Avenger); 20: Anthony Cairns/Mark Preston (Subaru Impreza).

Also last weekend the ANICC Awards evening took place at the Armagh City Hotel. It was a successful evening, with some 350 guests and a huge amount of awards to be given out for several different championships. Kris Meeke made a late appearance and was the recipient of the NI Motorsport Award. This is the third time Kris has won it – the previous years were 2009 and 2013, but this appearance was no less appreciated. He was a very popular winner. He complimented the ANICC on all their work, and remarked that for any young driver who wanted to progress in Motorsport, the different disciplines highlighted on the evening, from auto-testing through to full scale rallying, and the ANICC events gave a tremendous footing. Just some of the other awards included a special ANICC/MSA Lifetime Achievement Award for Pat McAleer. Godfrey Evans was presented with the Motorsport Marshalling Partnership Award, his dedication, and his team’s, highlighted. Bill Adair of ‘S W Tyres’ fame presented the top Sprint Trophy to Seamus Morris. Bill announced he would be continuing his sponsorship of the series.

Fintan McGrady was in Donegal on Saturday competing in his Escort on the Mini Stages, and he was able to make it down from Letterkenny to present the NI Stage Rally Championship Awards He also announced that his company, McGrady Insurance, would continue to back the stage rally series. Derek McGarrity was announced the Stage Rally Champion, his 6th year of winning it. Rob Duggan made the trip from Killarney to collect the runner-up overall driver award, as well as Junior Rally Champion, while Ger Conway was the Champion co-driver. Paul Blair got the top auto-test prize, while the remarkable Paul King, who has overcome a debilitating illness to keep competing, as well as co-ordinating the auto-tests. Interestingly, Paul still found time to develop a special gearbox, with just two forward gears and reverse, all with synchro! The above is just skimming the surface of the many awards!

While the NI competitors were enjoying the bright lights of the ANICC prize giving, down in Co. Cork drivers and co-drivers were battling the elements on the Innishannon based Skibbereen and District 100 Isles Navigation event. Donal Healy/Denis O’Donovan in a Starlet came out on top, just ahead of Alan and George Shinnors in an Impreza. Third went to another Subaru, crewed by Pakie Duffy/Evin Hughes.

The Arctic Rally also finished on Saturday, and Matt Shinnors, co-driven by his wife Catherine successfully completed the event, one of the toughest stage rallies in today’s modern world – what a stunning way to spend your honeymoon – fantastic! Matt sent us an email telling the story of their Arctic Rally adventure. It reads as follows: Well we finished the Arctic Rally anyway and we are still talking so all is good! We finished 9th out of 17 starters, a finish was a class win to us. It was very challenging but satisfying rally, the recce was tough as the stages weren’t repeated (except the super special) so the we had to make 250km or so of notes.
We just did two runs over stage as a loop of over the full route is over 800km.
We made the notes in daylight and checked them at night as most of stages were ran at night as there is not much daylight up there at present.
We were just a few miles from Russia for some of the stages.
We made more safety notes more so than pace notes for speed, will the aim of staying out of the snow banks, which we avoided on the stages…
On recce we were driving down a 500 straight, there was a small bump that upset the car and moved of line slightly,
next thing we know we were sucked into a snow bank looking at each other wondering what just happened.
It took 30minutes and 8 people and another recce car to toe our recce car out.
We notice we weren’t the only ones off the road on this section as a few meters away there was a lot of snow shovelled.
A lesson was learned for the rally, if we hit a bank is was going to be very difficult to get our heavy BMW e36 out unless we did it if front of a lot of spectators.
And there isn’t many junctions on these stages.
On the official test stage on Thursday where we were checking spot lights etc we had an issue with the rear brakes sticking (the were glowing red) when we arrived back to service.
We went back to Jesse Peteri (the guys I bought car off ) workshop to sort the issue out before the rally start the next day.
The guys did a great job and there was no issues with car all the event, it ran like clockwork.
Some of the stage were as narrow as Irish forestry events and others where as wide as the classic “1000 Lakes” roller coaster type stages.
The grip change from stage to stage some very icey and others not so much ice, but the studded tyres were the job.
The last 51km stage took us something like 40minutes, which is comparable to an Irish forestry event length.
Catherine had 38 pages of pacenotes for this stage, it was difficult to see as is was snowing.
We were thrilled to finish and it made the rally honeymoon!

Two rallies coming up fast now, apart from this weekend’s Galway International, are the Birr Stages and the Wm. Loughman Forestry. CoC of the 14th February Wm. Loughman is Barry Duggan, and he reports that although entries are usually notoriously slow to come in for the forestry rallies they are arriving into Carrick on Suir thick and fast. Barry told us that many of the drivers entered are new to the forestry. Just some of the entries received so far include Shane McGirr, with Jackie Elliott co-driving. Adrian Hetherington is committed and has Gary Nolan back in the hot seat. Gary’s new baby boy, Liam, is thankfully out of danger and is in good health. Father and son, Robert and Josh Moffett, are both entered. Robert in the Fiesta WRC and Josh in the Gerry McGarrity prepared Forestry Lancer. Mickey Conlon, the top Mk2 man in 2015 has also entered, as is Mickey McGillen – and there are lots more! The rally is the opening round of the Suirway Group South East Stages Rally Championship. The series organisers are making a big effort to raise the profile, including all sorts of free entries for selected class winners as well as wild card draws. There is also a re-vamped class structure, plus class bonus points for the ‘power’ stage – all interesting and forward thinking. As well as the Suirway Group Championship, the Wm. Loughman is the opening round of the Valvoline National Forest Championship.

The 21st February Birr Rally is normally a round of the Triton Showers National Championship but is on an ‘opt-out’ this time, so CoC Bill Ryan is running just two stages, each repeated three times. For Juniors and Historics the entry fee has been amended to €395 plus the insurance levy of €125. Ryan has picked two very enjoyable stages, with a mixture of great driving types of roads and very conveniently located, ensuring an easy recce for this Abbeyleix Hotel based rally. Reports are that the entries are coming in slowly but surely.

Also coming up fast is the North Armagh Club’s Kirkistown Stages, opening round of the McGrady Insurance NI series. The rally is due to run on the Saturday 13th February, with the Wm .Loughman on the Sunday. This is also the weekend of the WRC Swedish Rally and the opening BTRDA Rally, the Cambrian. Here we go again, too many rallies!

This weekend’s Corrib Oil Galway International Rally has over 100 entries and CoC Kieran Donoghue reports everything is on course. It certainly looks as if it is going to be a good weekend, and spotlight now going on to R5 and S2000 machinery for the Clonakilty Blackpudding Tarmac Championship will certainly add a whole new dimension. The World Rally Cars however still top the entry list, with Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy listed as the No.1 seeds. Garry’s Impreza WRC has been fully rebuilt since it unfortunately went on fire at the end of the Ulster Rally and when we spoke to Garry earlier this week he was in the process of borrowing a small sensor from Niall Maguire just to complete the preparation. Garry is also running Declan Gallagher of course in his other World Rally Subaru, and both cars were due to go on a test after we spoke to Garry at his oil distribution business. After doing his first recce last weekend, he reported the stages as grand, but very wet. Then it is wet everywhere these days. Garry finished our phone conversation with “Sure no matter, it will be a bit of craic and it will be all the same come Monday morning!”

With drivers such as former Tarmac Champions Declan Boyle, Derek McGarrity and Tim McNulty in World Rally Cars, as well as Roy White in his Focus WRC, local man Dean Raftery in an Impreza WRC and Declan Gallagher in Garry Jennings’ ‘other’ Impreza WRC, it should certainly be a bit of craic! There is however a little concern over Dean Raftery’s participation, as he has hurt his hand. Derek McGarrity is struggling to get himself sorted, as his right hand man Paul is in hospital.

Keith Cronin is the highest seeded R5 pilot, the three times British Rally Champion and former Galway winner reporting all well in his camp. He hopes to get his Citroen DS3R5 for a run this week before the rally, but says it will be more for familiarisation than anything. Keith’s last rally was the Cork ‘20’, where he went so well in his Citroen, 2nd overall with Donagh Kelly in front and Melvyn Evans behind, both in World Rally Cars. Alastair Fisher was due to test his Fiesta R5 on Wednesday, and then recce Thursday/ Friday. Alastair’s car should be the same Fiesta R5 evolution specification as Elfyn Evan’s Monte Carlo car. Fermanagh man Alastair commented, “The R5 entry should spice things up a bit!” Indeed, there are so many good drivers in R5 and S2000 cars the pace will surely be very hot and heavy.

Brendan Cumiskey was not able to test his new Fiesta R5 last week because of the snow, but did get a run out in the car at the weekend and found it very quick. He asked for the differentials to be slackened off a little, but otherwise was very happy with the new car, although it is going to take time to settle in to the left hand drive.

Highest seeded drivers in a GpN car this weekend are Stephen Hernon and David Guest who went so well on the Cork ‘20’. Hernon will drive a Subaru, Guest a Lancer. Aidan Wray, fresh from winning the category last weekend on the Donegal Mini Stages, driving his Lancer Evo10, is seeded just behind at 31. The next seed in GpN is Peter O’Kane and then further back we have Gavin Kelly and Liam Egan. The Sepam team is fielding two GpN Lancers for both Tipperary brothers Pat and Gus Kearney. The Escort contingent is headed this weekend by Wesley Patterson, seeded down at 20, with Chris Armstrong right behind. Wesley admitted to having a terrible run last weekend in Donegal, overshooting or spinning on every stage. The Lisburn man commented, “Maybe I will have put it behind me and it will be alright in Galway!” There are around a dozen historic entries scattered throughout the field, with Frank Cunningham in a Cosworth 4x4 the highest seed, down at No.63.

Being the first rally of the Tarmac Championship season, there are interesting names and cars scattered throughout the entry. The brilliant young William Creighton, a top graduate from the ‘Junior 1000’s’ is down at No.63 in his Peugeot R2. It will be interesting to compare times as the rally progresses with the likes of Callum Devine in his potent little Opel Adam or Marty Gallagher also in a Peugeot 208 R2.

The chosen charity of the Galway Rally this year is ‘Blood Bike West’. This is a charitable organisation established by volunteers to deliver, free of charge, essential medical supplies, out of hours, between hospitals, healthcare sites and laboratories.

Other news away from Galway includes Connor McCloskey/Damien Duffin putting together a deal to contest the first four rounds of the BTRDA series in a Derek McGeehan Mini WRC. Woodland Kitchen man Connor was within touching distance of winning the BTRDA a couple of years ago but was just pipped on the post. The Cambrian Rally (13th Feb) is the opening round.

Frank Kelly is planning a full assault on the Triton Showers MI National Rally this season, and has his ‘baby blue’ Escort fully rebuilt since its catastrophic crash on last year’s Laois Rally. Frank is currently awaiting the ECU being re-mapped and then he will be ready to go. He hopes to start his season with a run on the Fivemiletown Forest stages. Paul Twomey will probably co-drive this season, with Liam Brennan possibly just sitting in occasionally. Liam may be more than occupied sitting with Mick O’Brien in his Focus WRC on the Valvoline forestry series.

Sligo man Niall Burns co-drove Brenten Kelly in a Subaru to 3rd overall in the famous Sno Drift Rally in Michigan. That was quite a result for the pair.

The Prodrive Team has just notched a Chinese Rally Championship win with their specially built Golf, a similar car to the WRC VW Polo but tailored to the China market. Australian Chris Atkinson was driving one of the FAW-VW Golf’s, while local driver Chen Dean was in another, Niall McShea/Rory Kennedy contested much of the series for the Skoda/Red Bull team, and although they scored some decent results, the title was out of their reach and they missed the final frozen lake rally, held in temperatures of ‘minus 25’ but postponed from the Christmas period to mid-January.