Irish Notes 24th August 2016

Not boring, definitely not boring, last weekend’s Ulster Rally. OK, Elfyn Evans may have steered his DMack Fiesta R5 into the lead after three stages, and held it to the end to take victory and the British Rally Champion’s title, just as his father Gwyndaf did 20 years ago, but behind the young Welshman there was a massive scrap for the top positions, chiefly amongst the Clonakilty Blackpudding Tarmac Championship contenders. Indeed even Elfyn didn’t get it easy, as Keith Cronin was mostly never more than a whisker away until near the end when a gearbox change to his Citroen knocked Keith back to fifth place. Interestingly, Keith maintained throughout that he was not interested in trying to get ahead of Elfyn, just wanted maximum Tarmac Championship points. However such was the pace of the chasing pack, that Keith was generally never more than a few seconds away from Elfyn. Ballylickey man Keith, always maintained that he was within his own comfort zone and turned in the occasional fastest time even when Elfyn was flat out, and Jonny Greer, David Bogie and Alastair Fisher were always hard on Cronin’s tail.

Changeable weather conditions and slippy roads made tyre choice very difficult for all the drivers and brought many dramas during the course of the two days of rally action. Alastair Fisher led the rally for the opening three stages, but a deflated tyre knocked him back. This let Elfyn into the lead he wasn’t to lose and Cronin into a very solid 2nd place. Jonny Greer did a brilliant job and was 3rd right through to the finish. David Bogie was also very fast throughout. When the door opened three stages from the end, Alastair Fisher was through like a flash to take 2nd o/a and maximum Tarmac points in his Modern Tyres backed Fiesta. Such was the pace at the front, to hold any sort of top ten position meant driving flat out despite the difficult conditions. Sam Moffett, who was tied with Fisher for Tarmac points before the start, broke a wheel on his Fiesta R5 and was forced to retire, Josh Moffett never threatened the front runners, then a broken exhaust and smoky fumes in the car slowed him towards the end, although he still finished 7th.

Swedish driver Fredrik Ahlin put his Fiesta off the road and dropped many places. Desi Henry had a lot of minor setbacks with his Skoda R5 and eventually retired with powers steering issues. Marty McCormack and Joe McGonigle both drove their Skoda S2000s on the door handles but could make no impression on the leaders. Yes, the sharp end of the rally was about Elfyn taking the British Title, as well as the top Tarmac contenders jockeying for Clonakilty Blackpudding points. The Tarmac points tally at the top now reads Alastair Fisher 70, Keith Cronin 61.5 and Josh Moffett 58. With ‘points and a half’ on the next and final round, the Cork ‘20’, the title will surely be a ‘winner takes all’ scenario between Fisher and Cronin, with Moffett ready to pounce if mishap befalls the pair in front .

Of course there were all sorts of class battles as well. Under the general heading of the Ulster National, there were two rallies – a National A and a National B. Belfast’s Will Corry, accompanied by Welshman Brynmor Pierce, drove a Toyota GT86 to victory in the former category. Ballymena business man Alan Carmichael, co-driven by Ivor Lamont, driving the McGeehan Motorsport Mini WRC, took victory on the latter.
Will Corry reported a trouble free run in this Toyota, and said the car was very easy to drive and didn’t even wear out the tyres. The amazing Andy Johnson and co-driver Jim McSherry finished 2nd in the National A in their Vauxhall Chevette HSR. Andy & Jim also won the Historic part of the rally. Chris West/Jonathan Hawkins were on a steep learning curve on the Ulster and did well to finish 3rd in their Vauxhall Adam. Andy Johnson shrugged off a few mechanical problems with his Chevette.

In the National B section Alan Carmichael made life a bit more difficult for himself with a wrong slot that incurred 1m50s of road penalties. Otherwise Carmichael had an impressive run. Camillus Bradley/Crawford Henderson were 2nd in the National B with a fast clean run in their Escort Mk2. Top motorbike racer Michael Dunlop, also in a Mk2, was 3rd and was also the 2 litre class winner, ahead of several top Escort competitors after a very impressive run. Chris Armstrong held 2nd for much of the way but his Escort incurred a puncture then suspension damage and retired. Other top Escort drivers to retire included Wesley Patterson and Fintan McGrady. Vincent Bonner’s son John took maximum Modified Tarmac points, while Ross Marshall leads the modified points from Davy Armstrong. Andy Johnson’s win in the Historics brings him up to 2nd in the points, behind Frank Cunningham, with Brendan McAree 3rd. The forthcoming Manx International is a Tarmac counter for the Historics as well.

Further points of interest from the Ulster include Rob Duggan/Ger Conway tying up the DMack British Junior title, even with one round remaining. Young Callum Devine had a great run on the Ulster in his Adam to win R2. Duggan always had the British Championship Junior title in mind, so drove accordingly, but it will be great to see these two in an equal contest, if such a thing is possible. We will have more news on Rob Duggan next week.

David Guest tied up the Tarmac GpN title on the Ulster, while GpN on the rally was won by Paul Britton with George Tinsley back in the co-drivers seat. The two Kearney brothers, Gus and Pat, survived several dramas in their respective Sepam backed Lancers, and finished down the order somewhat but still managed to collect some GpN points, Gus lying 2nd and Pat 3rd.

The rally was also a counter in the FIA Celtic Trophy and Keith Cronin leads the points on that one from Sam Moffett with Alastair Fisher 3rd. Stephen Wright, who retired his Fiesta R5 on the Ulster due to mechanical woes, lies 4th. Callum Devine leads both the 2wd category and the Juniors.

Final word on the Ulster for now must go to Clerk of the Course Gary Milligan and his team for their organisational prowess. Few people have any real idea about the hoops Gary had to jump through to get this show on the road – it was an enormous task. As ever Gary faced every difficulty with calmness and gave everyone his time and consideration. On the event there were several major incidents, which were dealt with efficiently. Truly, Gary is a bit of a man in a million.

Meanwhile there was another wee rally on – well it seemed wee from the perspective of Londonderry, as there was hardly a word about Trier, perhaps a symptom of no Meeke or Breen – and on WRC Rally Germany Sebastien Ogier took victory in his VW Polo R WRC. The World Rally Champion had to fight hard for his win though, and Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville in their respective Hyundai’s were never far away. Neuville took maximum points in the power stage. Mikkelsen was 4th at the end in his VW, Paddon 5th and Mads Ostberg 6th in his M-Sport Fiesta WRC, Mads seemingly having lost a little bit of his fire. Jon Armstrong did make the DMack podium, but his 3rd place in the points would surely have been better if his Fiesta R2 hadn’t suffered a puncture and then a spin.

This weekend’s rally action is concentrated on Galway where CoC Mark Parsons has laid on three very enjoyable stages South of the City, each one to be run three times. The rally is an opt out year from the Triton Showers National Championship, but still has attracted a good entry with Niall Maguire, Paddy McVeigh, Chris Armstrong and Frank Kelly the top seeds. Brian Brogan and Adrian Hetherington, both in Escorts, make up the top half dozen.

Meanwhile, looking back again, Matt Shinnors, co-driven by his wife Catherine, managed 2nd in the up to two litre class and 13th o/a on the Gorman Ridge Rally in California. Much of it was through desert country and many of the competitors wore tee shirts with an iced water system running through them. Matt recalls that some of the stages reminded him of Cyprus and they even managed a fastest 2wd time on a stage with few uphill sections. They were in an underpowered Corolla! The event was won by ‘Dukes of Mondocino’, aka Kris Psara and Andres Bautista. John Coyne was 3rd o/a in a Subaru. Most of the top guys were driving various Imprezas. There were many different types of car in the rally – Ryan Millen for example was driving a Toyota backed RAV4.