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IRISH
NOTES 07.05.03
The
prestigious Punchestown Rally Masters event is not going to
happen this year after all. The brainchild of Ronan Morgan, run
in conjunction with Motorsport Ireland and with Tom Nolan as C of
C, the event has been a roaring success since its inception 2
years ago. Plans were well advanced for this year until an insurmountable
obstacle surfaced in the shape of a contractual agreement between
Punchestown and a concert organiser concerning the siting of
equipment and vehicles. These had to be allowed to stay 'in situ'
over a period which conflicted with the Rally and made the
event's running impractical. Ronan and Tom are already studying
dates for 2004 in a WRC envelope of three weeks.
Ladies Tarmac Rally Champion Aisling Dooris crashed her Swift out
of the Circuit of Ireland and is having to build a new car to
continue her Tarmac campaign. The Fermanagh lady hopes to
do Cavan as a shake down and then the Jim Clark and Ulster
events.
Gary White was another to crash out at Easter, in Gary's case
from the lead of the Easter Stages part of the Circuit of
Ireland. The Dunmurry man was keen to compete on the KBB
Doors backed Tour of the Sperrins, next round of the NI Rally
Championship, but the Shell backed car will not be ready for some
time.
Galway's JJ Fleming arranged with Derek McGarrity to trade his ex
Eamonn Boland Impreza WRC for Derek's Circuit of Ireland winning
Impreza S8. This is the same car that Derek used on the Lakes to
finish 3rd.
Some consolation for Austin McHale on the Rally of the Lakes was
winning the Bertie Fisher Memorial Award for fastest time over
the Molls Gap stage.
Dominic McNeill (Escort WRc) is hoping to make a return to the
Southern Forestry series on the Middleton based Cork Forestry
Rally. Current Championship leader John McCarthy, who has 3
out of 3 outright wins to his credit will be on his home ground
in his Subaru and should be hard to beat.
Derek McGarrity's 3rd place on the Lakes reinforces his position
at the front of the Tarmac Championship with 27 points. Eamonn
Boland is on 18, Maurice Gass 16 and Eugene Donnelly 15. Dickie
Curran leads the gpN category from Aaron McHale with Dickie's son
Michael in 3rd place.
Killarney was also a round of the 023 Tiles Southern 4
Championship and Maurice Gass reinforced his lead, the highest
placed registered finisher. 023 Tiles supremo James
O'Sullivan hired a Escort F2 for the Lakes but the engine
expired on stage 3.
Billy Coleman's son Gordon won the Special Sunday on the Lakes
having retired his Ford Ka on the Saturday.
Regards
Brian Patterson
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