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RALLY
NEWS NO.1
Midleton - Sunday morning….early
John McCarthy is the No.1 seed for today's Moonraker Rally. John, from
Carrigtwohill, just up the road, has won the first three rounds of this
year's KBB Doors Forestry Rally Championship, this Moonraker Rally being
round 4. John drives an ex Bertie Fisher Subaru Impreza Turbo and
commented last night in the Middleton Park Hotel at scrutineering signing
on, "The car has been checked and re-checked. There was new
suspension fitted for Wicklow, the car was too stiff, much better now. It
will not be the car that is fault tomorrow if it all goes wrong."
Behind John is Eddie Kinirons in his Celica, 2nd in the Championship, then
Omagh man Kevin O'Kane in another Subaru. Kevin, a former All-Ireland
Forestry Champion, tells us that he has discovered a small problem with
the car's centre 'active' differential, now cured. Fourth in the
line-up is Co Antrim's John Donnelly. Normally Greg McCarthy would sit in,
but he is not totally recovered from his Lakes accident, so Joe McAleese
is co-driving. John reckons his car has never gone as well, and he is
really looking forward to the rally.
No.5 is blank, so the cars behind will move up one but will keep their
original numbers. That means John Shanahan is next up in his gpN Impreza,
David Moynihan co driving instead of the usual Liam McLaughlin. John leads
the showroom category in the championship and said he has tried to screw a
bit more power out of the car, but there seems to be no more to come.
At No.7 is James Murphy/Colm Mulcahy in their Escort Cosworth, and then
its Brian McCloskey and Damien Duffy, all the way down from Co. Derry.
Brian has been going better and better all season, starting to set a few
fastest times and could be one to watch. John McGaffin in his rumbling ex
McRae Legacy and Kevin Lynch in his Impreza WRC make up the top 10. Lynch
won the St. Angelo event last week so is in top form. John Hickey is
seeded at No.13 in his Toyota Celica. John had a really good result
on the Killarney Rally of the Lakes a couple of weeks ago and could well
be given a start time in the middle of the top 10.
Then we move into the realm of the Mk2 Escorts where the competition is
likely to be frenetic to say the least. In theory Paul Staunton
should be the quickest man, but top results have so far eluded Paul this
year, punctures and problems intervening. Ray Benskin should be
quick, Allen Tracey has hired a 16 valve Escort and could spring a
surprise, Brian Lawlor and Sean Benskin should both be on the pace.
Denis Cronin is making a surprise visit to the forests in a Mk2 Escort.
Denis has his 16 year old nephew Keith co driving, and again could be one
to watch.
There are many interesting facets to the rally. Just one of those is the
fact that there are quite a few Ford Kas entered, the drivers, including
Emily O'Mahony, getting some practice in for the next round of the Ford
Ireland Ka series which will be on the two day Cork Forestry at Mallow.
Peugeot 206's abound as well! More news after stage 1. BRIAN &
LIZ PATTERSON
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