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Irish
Notes 24th April 2002
Tragedy
has struck yet again in Irish rallying. Shane O’Neill was
tragically killed when co-driving for Chris Rogers last Sunday on
the Monaghan Rally. Chris, 32 years old and also from Draperstown,
was flown to hospital, his condition ill, with broken vertabrae.
The
provisional seeding for the Killarney Rally of the Lakes shows
WRC and GpA cars filling the top ten slots. Tarmac Champion and
current Toshiba points leader Andrew Nesbitt heads the list in an
Impreza WRC, with Austin McHale at 2 in his Corolla WRC, followed
by Derek McGarrity, Eamonn Boland, Daniel Doherty and Peadar
Hurson. Liam O’Callaghan continues his comeback by being
slotted in at 7, this time in McKinstry’s full Impreza WRC.
Pete Doughty, Maurice Gass and Liam McCarthy, all in WRC’s,
round off the top ten. Trevor Cathers is the highest seeded GpN
driver at 11, while Donie O’Sullivan at 12 and Seamus Leonard
at 18 will be debuting the very latest Prodrive GpN Imprezas.
Martin
Teggert took his Escort to a 10 second win over Brian
Black(Starlet) on last Saturday’s Kilbroney Stage Rally. Lionel
McNeice was 3rd, Gerard McPolin
4th ,Norman Moore 5th and Robert
Riddles 6th.
The
Monaghan Rally was the opening round of the Ford of Ireland KA
Championship. Gerry Keys scored top points, with Kenneth Mulvaney
2nd and James Eivers 3rd.
Local
driver Eugene Ferry is the top seed on this weekend’s Seaview
Hotel Donegal Clubman Stage Rally at Gweedore, Philip Shaw at 2
and Hugh Martin Doherty at 3. All are in Mk2 Escorts, with Hugh
Martin Doherty switching from his Subaru to Glen Allen’s Ford.
There is a capacity 131 car entry, with many reserves.
Works
Peugeot driver Rory Galligan is again going to act as Deputy
Clerk of the Course to Breen McNamee for his home Castle Stage
Rally. The popular 8th
September event will have its HQ in Virginia and main service
area in Rory’s home village of Oldcastle,
Rory has shown no ill effects from his Astra Stages
accident and has been testing his new Peugeot 206.
The
SEAT Lurgan Park Rally remains on its original Saturday 6th
July date despite the efforts of the North Armagh Club to move
the event into August. Clerk of the Course William Fullerton
promises the usual high profile spectacular rally.
Ballynahinch
MC has enlisted support from PHP Architects for their 4th
May Bishopscourt Stages Rally. Top seed is last year’s winner
Rodney Gilliland, with Sammy Wilson and Terence Taggart behind.
There is a surprise entry from former NI Rally Champion Mervyn
Hill in an Escort.
Brian
Patterson.
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