RALLY NEWS NO.1    Quality Hotel Clonakilty/Saturday 09.00

'Wide open' could fairly describe the odds when trying to pick a victor for this 25th West Cork Rally. There is a plethora of top drivers and brilliant machinery in the 150 strong line up. Last year's winner and current Get Connected Champion Melvyn Evans will lead the cars away for the first of the 16 classic asphalt stages. Last year Melvyn hardly put a wheel wrong on his way to victory. The Welshman is in a Subaru this time (David Armstrong, running at 16, is driving his Escort WRC). At the driver reception in Clonakilty's Quality Hotel Melvyn remarked, "I haven't really driven the car, so I will take it steady on the first loop of stages and then see how we go".  Behind Melvyn is Eamonn Boland in what is probably the best Impreza WRC in private hands today. Wexford man Eamonn told us that he has tested the new semi automatic gearchange Impreza and is well pleased with it.

At 3 is Kenny McKinstry, driving a new car to his fleet, a 2000 version from Procar in Italy. Kenny's is a sequential change machine, the Banbridge man saying that it seems really odd to keep his foot flat on the accelerator, never lifting, when changing gear.  This West Cork Rally must be one of the few events in Ireland that he hasn't won. He did finish 2nd here in a Gp4 Escort back in the Eighties. Kenny is fairly intent on going one better this time. Next in the line up is Donal O'Donovan. The last time he competed here was five years ago, when he won. Donal's Celica may not be the newest car in the rally, but if it stays dry the Dunmanway man could be right up there fighting for the win. At No5 is three times West Cork winner Bob Fowden. He may only be driving a GpN Mitsubishi, but he is so good here in West Cork, the odds are that he will be showing some of the 'big' car a clean pair of heels if he gets a clear run. Steve Fleck at 6 is another of the Impreza WRC pilots, and although he had a few problems with the set-up of his Subaru on the Rallye Sunseeker earlier this year. Steve, if he gets a good run, could improve on his last year's runner up spot. A real dark horse in the entry could be car No.7, Michael Barrable and his Impreza WRC. The Dublin man loves the flowing roads, and there's no shortage of those here. Michael drove conservatively last weekend to take 2nd on the Mayo Rally. His car gave no trouble, and he should be competitive here from the fall of the flag. (Although the stage start flags are actually done away with this time in favour of new electronic timing). Liam McCarthy at 8 in his Corolla WRC, and Denis Cronin in his fabulous BMW round off the top ten. The only really significant non-starter is Pete Doughty, who was to be at 9.

There are plenty more in the entry who shouldn't be too far away either - men like 023 Tiles Champion Ollie O'Donovan, Maurice Gass, David Armstrong and a whole lot more. One of the great fascinations of the rally should be the class battles, several of which are sure to encroach into top ten territory, so fierce will be the competition. Class 14 for example features the BMW M3's of Denis Cronin and Bio-Clear man Donie O'Sullivan, as well as the 2.4 litre Escorts of Phil Collins, Willie McCarthy and Derek Smith, not to mention the Darrian of Damien Cole. Get Connected supremo Damien is lucky enough to have world class co-driver Nicky Grist in the hot seat this weekend. In class 13 for 2 litre machinery, Kieran O'Neill in his Kadett, David James, Gareth Lloyd in the WWRS Escort and Leonard Downey in another Escort are just some who will not only be fighting for category honours, but won't be too far away from the top. In GpN, besides Fowden, we have drivers such as Mark Morgan in his Mitsubishi, category winner last year and 8th overall, and Owen Doyle in his Suir Engineering Suburu, complete with new dog box, to name just a few. Non starters in the main rally are few and far between. We have already mentioned Pete Doughty. Shay Power, Stephen Carway, Liam Davis and Tom Murphy are four more who won't be running.  More news after stage 1. BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON:    LATE NEWS; Stage 3/7 shortened at end due to bereavement.