Austin McHale was in attendance on the Wm Loughman Rally last weekend, keeping an eye on son Gareth in his Peugeot 206. Gareth won his class, despite suspension damage. Austin reported that he has tested his new Subaru WRC and he felt so comfortable in the car he has decided to keep it in left hand form, certainly for the foreseeable future.

Monaghan Motor Club is running a motorsports show at the Hillgrove Hotel this Sunday 2^nd March as a prelude to their 27^th April National Stage Rally. The show first took place last year and was a resounding success. Several WRC cars will be on display this time. Proceeds will go towards an extension to the haemotology department at Beaumont Hospital.

Nigel Hicklin took his GpA Subaru Impreza to 2^nd overall on last weekend’s North West Stages at Preston. The Ballymena man was using the event as a warm up for West Cork and the Get Connected series. Last year Nigel and co-driver Sam McMullen were in a position to win the Championship and the 023 Tiles Southern 4 but a down on power engine on the final round in Skibbereen saw them relegated to 3^rd in both championships.

Young Philip Morrow from Lisburn was one of the stars of last weekend’s Rallye Sunseeker. He led the Peugeot 206 Winter Cup contenders but was forced to retire on stage 11 when a series of bad bumps moved the radiator and broke the oil filter. He only had to finish 2^nd on the day to take the title, but it wasn’t to be. 19 year old Philip has now to re-group and plans to launch a serious attempt at this year’s 206 SuperCup, starting with the Rally of Wales in March.

Letterkenny’s Shaun Gallagher, co driven by Mallow’s David Moynihan, finished a solid 2^nd in class on the European Championship Rally Finnskog. This was part of Shaun’s of 8 week training programme in Norway. His event was hampered early on by the suspension not being set up for the conditions, and also catching slower cars.

Derek McGarrity is to compete on all of this season’s Toshiba Tarmac Championship rounds in a Subaru Impreza WRC S7. The Glengormley man was the only Irish driver on last year’s Tarmac series to really challenge Andrew Nesbitt. A hallmark of Derek’s rallying has been his constant changing of his rally cars, in keeping with his business. This season however, with the backing of Pirelli Tyres, Derek plans to campaign the latest model Impreza WRC throughout the season. Derek is on the list to compete on the forthcoming 15^th/16^th March West Cork Rally, presumably as a ‘warm-up’.

Vivienne Noone, a young stable manager from Cashel and a fresh face on the scene, scored maximum points on the Ford Ireland Ka Championship opening round in Carrick on Suir last weekend. Eoin Fogarty was 2^nd, Ian Chadwick 3^rd and Martin Laverty 4^th.

 Brian Patterson