RALLY NEWS NO.1                  Sligo - Sunday morning early….

"This will be a clever man's rally" opined Victor Carrothers at scrutiny last night for this Sligo Stages Rally. The Enniskillen man continued "The stages are fast in places, tricky and tight in others". Victor is co-driving for 'local' man Sean Gallagher in his Escort Cosworth. Seeded at 160, were in the reserves, but will start in the top ten, possibly behind David McNulty, who also drives an Escort Cosworth. Interestingly, in the Irish rally world at present where the Subarus dominate, it will also be a Ford that leads the 151 strong entry away from the Sligo Park Hotel. That Ford, an Escort WRC, will be driven by Steve Hendy. The Dorset man is one of the lead drivers in the Tarmacadam Championship, to whom this Sligo Rally extends a warm welcome this weekend to all 17 crews.

Steve remarked about his first trip here to the West of Ireland, "I'm really looking forward to it. When we did our recce I found it bumpy to start with, but the more times I went over the stages the more I liked the roads. We'll feel our way initially, try and get the right settings on the suspension. It will be a tough rally, and there could be a fair bit of attrition, an element of survival, but still fast." Behind Hendy will be Glenn Allen, going better than ever now that his Escort WRC has been sorted, with Alan Nesbitt 3rd on the road in the ex McHale/Kankkunnen Toyota Celica. Alan was going a stormer on the Donegal Rally until the car's ECU gave trouble. He has at long last got a new one, the car has been re-mapped, and Alan has his fingers crossed that he has a good run here.

Cahal Arthurs in another Celica is next up, then its David Kynaston. David leads the Tarmacadam series points in his unusual Audi A3 Quattro. The gearbox has been rebuilt and the far travelled Exeter man reports all well. Next on the road is Tony Davies in his Subaru. The car has been totally rebuilt by Melvyn Evans following Tony crashing it at Ravens Rock. It was found there that the suspension wasn't suitable for the Irish Tarmac. That has been sorted, so it will be interesting to see how Tony, normally a really quick man, goes here. David McNulty is next, his Escort Cosworth re-mapped, much quicker than before, but slightly prone to overheating.

As mentioned above, Sean Gallagher should be next, then at 10 and 11 the first of the GpN cars, Willie Fannin and Mark Worley, both in Lancers. Interestingly, the GpN entry on the rally is really strong, with drivers such as Raymond Johnston, a front GpN runner on the Circuit of Ireland, seeded at 23 in his Lancer, and a lot more good guys even further down. Interestingly, Raymond's co-driver David Johnston last co-drove here in 1982 with the late Bertie Fisher in the red Escort CIL999 - and they won. At 12 is very possible winner Steve Fleck in his fabulous Subaru Impreza WRC, followed by Sligo man Dominic McLoughlin in his Peugeot RWD. Fleck has been moved up a few places in the start order but will still carry No.12 on the car.

That's a feature of the entry here - all sorts of good drivers and cars scattered throughout the entry. The event is also a round of the Ford Ireland Focus Championship for example, with Colm Murphy the highest seed at 28, John Foley at 29 and points leader Oliver Stanley at 51. The Focus' in the series have been finishing in the top twenty on National Rallies, particularly since they got the close ratio six speed gearboxes. Oliver and his co-driver Des Moran won the last round at Ravens Rock, but before that  had a topsy turvy run at times with power steering problems. That seems all sorted out now, and today should be a real good race. Class battles should be a big feature here today.

The rally is also a round of the Quinn Border Championship, with Norman Armstrong in his MK 2 Escort just one of several drivers who will be trying to notch up a further advantage in the class based points. Enda Keenan, Trevor Lancashire and Patrick Boyle are just three more rapid Mk2 Escort men who should be in the hunt. Down the field crews who should go well include Andrew Mullen/Elaine Doherty from Ballisodare in their Puma, although Andrew, who has been good enough to help with our RallyNews service this weekend, is a tad worried about 2nd gear in his Puma.

Meanwhile, away from Sligo, the very sad news has reached us that former Tarmac, British and USA Rally Champion, Mark Lovell (43 yrs) winner of such rallies as the Donegal International, has, along with current co-driver Roger Freeman (52 yrs) been killed in a rally accident in the USA.  We extend our deepest sympathy to all the families and friends. 
BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON