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Irish Notes
18th Sept 2002.
Eamonn
Boland,
fresh from success on his home Wexford Rally, intends competing
on the Bulldog Rally, final round of the ANCRO series. Francis
Regan will be co-driving in Eamonn’s Impreza WRC, the outing a
possible warm up for Rally GB. There has been some speculation
that Eamonn is going to try a Focus WRC again, but this is
unconfirmed.
Galway’s
Stephen Bird
leads the Top Part West Coast Rally series following the Galway
Summer Rally, with Alan Tracy 2nd, Tim McNulty 3rd
and JJ Fleming 4th. Just 5 points cover the top five.
This
weekend’s Clare Rally
is a counting round of the Ford Ireland Focus Rally Championship,
with Oliver Stanley on top of the points table with 56, Hamilton
Bell 40 and Cathal O’Reilly 30. Colm Murphy, who was very
dominant on the Ulster but retired with mechanical maladies, is 4th
on 26 points.
Speyside
winner
and former NI Rally Champion Stephen Harron withdrew his entry
for his local rally, the Lakeland Stages, to concentrate his
resources on the Park Stages.
JJ Fleming
has withdrawn his entry from Clare, having received a surprise
offer for his Impreza WRC from abroad. Galway transport magnate
JJ is now undecided on whether to go for a Focus or an Impreza
WRC.
John Quill,
clerk of the course of the successful Cork Forestry last week,
reports that he is in a quandary over next year’s date. It
would appear that An Coilte, (forestry authority) want all forest
rallies in the Republic to take place between February and
September when the tracks will be drier, to save wear and tear.
This may mean the Cork event switching to the end of July. It is
not possible to know yet just what this will clash with. In
addition there is an increase in forest charges in the pipeline,
although this would be alleviated somewhat if the KBB Doors
Championship rallies, which are restricted to just 80 cars, are
allowed to increase that number to 100 as has been mooted.
Peugeot 206
Super Cup
leader Gary Jennings has decided not to compete on the Park
Stages in a Lancer but to concentrate all his energies on Le
Touquet.
Brian
Patterson.
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