RALLY NEWS NO.1      Enniskillen..Saturday morning

This inaugural Fisher Engineering Summit Rally got off to an auspicious start with scrutineering and a rally show at the Fisher Engineering factory in Ballinamallard last night. There was a stunning display of rally machinery, a huge barbecue and a grand rally party. The auction raised œ30,000 for charity. Typical of the auction action was Karen Richards bidding over œ5000 for a test session co-drive with Colin McRae in the works Ford Focus. The twist was that this was a birthday present for her husband Dave Richards, the boss of Prodrive, a former World Rally Champion co-driver and the man who guided Colin to his World Rally title with his Subaru 555 Team. It was that sort of night, with two other former World Rally Champions, Hannu Mikkola and Stig Blomqvist appearing on stage with Billy Coleman, Dave Richards and Phil Short of Mitsubishi Ralliart. As  well as the 'showtime', about which Hannu Mikkola joked at one time, 'does the rally party in Ireland end before the rally?", there was the serious business of scrutineering the fabulous array of cars for today's rally.

Ian Greer will lead the way in his Toyota Celica. The reigning Tarmac Champion is in a lot happier frame of mind than he was down in Killarney a few weeks ago where he never really got on the ultimate pace. Ian's Taranto de Pol backed  machine was discovered to be well down on power after 'The Lakes', team engineer Ian Cuddy joking last night, "we've remapped the car and the driver". At two is Andrew Nesbitt in the first  of the fearsome Subaru's, Andrew just back from an Italian business trip, and raring to get at the action. The Armagh man, who is making a serious crack at the Toshiba Tarmac Championship this year in his Cuisine de France backed Subaru observed, "This is a totally different type of stage, indeed type of rally for the Championship. Although its not bumpy, and we have lowered the car 5mm, there are some tricky dips over the cattle grids. I think it should suit us".

Five times Tarmac Champion Austin McHale starts at 3 in his Corolla WRC, the Dubliner completing a short test session on Wednesday to make sure the car is OK.This was following the 'Lakes' transmisssion problem. Austin will be out to make up for lost time here today. Hannu Mikkola is at 4. The former World Champion hasn't driven anything at this level since the '93 1000 Lakes. He said after driving his Prodrive Subaru: "The car feels very good, handles very well, almost thinks for itself". Hannu has his 19 year old son Juha co-driving on his first rally. Stig Blomqvist is next up, the Swede, with Mark Crowe co-driving, expected to be the dark horse on today's event. The conditions are sure to be slippy, and Stig could just be the man to turn that to his advantage. Looking on down the entry list, with James Cullen, Frank Meagher, Stephen Murphy, Derek McGarrity and Daniel Doherty just some of the top names, it promises to be a day of intense competition. A few non-starters from the programme list include Eamonn Boland, Jimmy McRae and Hugh M Doherty. More news from Quinn Quarry complex after stage 1...BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON