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RALLY
NEWS NO.1
Portumna-Sunday morning..early
It's all stations go for this Galway Summer Rally, with a star studded top
entry which reflects the interest in the Dunlop National Rally Championship,
this being round 8 out of 10. The Rally is also a counter in the Top Part
West Coast series. Michael Barrable in his Subaru Impreza WRC leads away the
131 strong entry, the Dubliner remarking at 'recce' signing on in O'Meara's,
"The car is fine. We've put in a new clutch since the last outing on
the Stonethrowers, and given it a good checkover, but it didn't need too
much. We gave it a good overhaul earlier. I'm looking forward to the rally,
going to give it a good lash." Behind Michael is his closest rival for
the Dunlop Championship title, Eugene Donnelly. Maghera man Eugene has had a
phenomenal rally year of victories and he he'll be going flat out here to
keep his Championship hopes alive.
At 3 is Monaghan's Adrian McElvaney, one of the best young drivers in the
country at the moment. Adrian crashed his Subaru on the Stonethrowers, it
has been repaired and he was hoping for a test drive on Friday, but the car
wouldn't, just refused, to fire up. So hopefully 'the flat four' engine will
be on song for today. At 4 is Jim Harrison from Macclesfield, the English
man's flamboyant driving style and carefree personality more than welcome
here in Portumna. Jim has been so close to winning one of these National
rounds, but so far hasn't quite achieved it. Perhaps this will be that time.
Niall Maguire is at 5 and David Armstrong at 6. Niall is the current Dunlop
National Champion, but by his own high standards has had a stop-go, patchy
season. That said, he is more than capable of taking the top honours here.
David Armstrong bought Melvyn Evans' Escort WRC for this year, and he has
had some good runs, but some not great, to put it mildly, and in fact this
event will be a bit of a comeback after a fair lay-off following an accident
on the Limerick event. David surely won't be hanging about here, but at the
same time as much the point for him is to give the car a good shakedown for
next weekend's Ulster Rally. Patrick Elliott, JJ Fleming and Denis Cronin
make up the top 9.
Charlie Donnelly was to be at 10 in his brother Eugene's famous Celica,
crunched the car on Friday night and is unlikely to make the start. Denis
Cronin at 9 is in the highest seeded two-wheel drive car, his BMW M3. West
Cork man Denis has had a slightly disappointing season, but has at last
found a small fault in the wiring loom of the BMW which was cutting back on
the petrol supply, and he says it is suddenly a different car, just like
last year. Stand back and look out for fireworks!
Outside the top ten are many talented drivers as well - John Spain, Kevin
Barrett, Sean Gallagher, David McNulty, Bangor's Jaye Jordan, dipping his
toe in the Dunlop Championship waters. Dan Mulcahy, Stephen Bird,
driving a McKinstry GpA Subaru for the first time today, all quick men. All
likely to be fighting for top ten places. Further back are the leading GpN
contestants, such as Derrick Jobb, Willie Fannin, Peter Clifford, Mark
Courtney, Ray Hilliard and a whole lot more. The Escort class battles should
be pretty special as well, adding to the dramas of the whole occasion.
Torsten Schimdt of Gp4 Fabrications is giving a 500 Euro award for the best
placed Mk2 Escort. Tom Halliday, Douglas Richardson and Aidan
Walsh should be three of the lead contenders for that, Aidan co-incidentally
leading the West Coast series starting this 3rd round. The rally isn't all
about established stars - consider young Stuart Dempsey for example. He is
doing his first rally this weekend but his Swift was turned down at
scrutineering because the fire extinguishers weren't up to scratch. Happily
that is now sorted so look out for car 123….More news after stage 1
Tiraranscragh. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON (www.rallynews.net)
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