RALLY NEWS NO.1 Ennis/Saturday 6.30
Jim Casey, Clerk of the Course of this Clare Stages Rally, has laid on a tough challenging route for the expected 158 competing crews. In addition around 20 Junior teams will drive the afternoon stages only. Last year’s Clare Stages winner Tim McNulty is listed as no.1 seed, but the Summerhill man can’t make it, reportedly having some update work done to his Subaru, so it will be Patrick Elliott, carrying No.2 on his Subaru, who will lead the cars away from the West County Hotel here in Ennis following the Saturday evening ceremonial start, and then on the Sunday morning for the eight special stages.
Patrick won the Galway Summer Rally two weeks ago, which clinched the Dunlop National Championship for him as a driver. His regular co-driver, Paul Goodman, was away at his brother Barry’s wedding that day, so now the objective for Patrick is to score another bundle of Dunlop points and tie up the co-driver’s section of the series for Paul. That’s plan A, but of course rallying is rarely that simple.
Apart from the toughness of the stages, driver’s such as Niall Maguire and Kevin Barrett in their respective Impreza WRC’s will be flat out for points themselves and won’t be making it easy for Patrick to take a maximum. Former Champion Maguire gave the series a great go this year until he was unfortunate enough to crash out of the Galway event. Fair play to Niall though, he has picked himself up, and despite the chance of another Championship win being gone, he’s here competing anyway. It is never the same when the chance of the Championship outright win has evaporated, difficult to keep the momentum going, but Niall is here in Ennis to give it a go.
Kevin Barrett and his co-driver Sean Mullally are fairly secure in 3rd Dunlop Championship slot. Having said that Kevin, who is just back from New York, will have to keep a weather eye out for top GpN driver Alan Ring. Alan is edging up the overall points tally as well as holding an ever stronger GpN position with his Lancer. Interestingly, Alan set out to have a quiet rally year, and not only is now odds on to take our Pattersons RallyNews GpN Award; he is also leading the Top Part West Coast Championship.
Local man Anthony O’Halloran, who also drives a GpN Lancer, will be looking for a very big result here, especially on his home Ruan stage. Anthony’s Dunlop Championship challenge has faded away through the season as the car has proved a handful to keep in top fettle, but he can certainly make his mark here. Other top GpN crews in the hunt include Eamonn Daly/Kevin Synott, who run at No7. They led the category in the Championship early on, but that has slipped away. Ian Barrett/Eoin O’Flaherty are back rallying again having completed their degrees and they run at 17 in their GpN Impreza. Thomas Fitzmaurice and Danny McBride in their GpN Lancers, and Sean Flanagan in his GpN Impreza round off the top 20, and any of these drivers can make an impression on the result. Local man Alan O’Callaghan is seeded at 15 in his Lancer. He has opted to run his car in GpA trim, and is well capable of springing a surprise.
Maurice Moffett, this time with Enda Sherry co-driving, is the highest seeded ‘modified’, or ‘two wheel drive’ man in his RWD Starlet. Maurice, who more or less has the modified section of the Dunlop series tied up, last competed here on the Clare Stages about 8 years ago when he crashed and broke his leg, so it is understandable he is a bit nervous. There are lots of top Mk2 Escort men who will be trying hard to topple Monaghan man Maurice from his perch this weekend, just a couple of the highest seeded ones include Brian Brogan, Mike Moloney and Mike Quinn in their respective Mk2 Escorts.
Just a few of the non-starters from the top end of the original published list in the programme include Tim McNulty as already mentioned, Willie Fannin who was to be at 8, Trevor Mulligan, who was to be at 10 but his Escort isn’t fixed yet following its Galway smash, Joe McHugh who was to be at 16, and Trevor/Kenny Bustard from Donegal have cried off for personal family reasons. Former British Rally Champion Russell Brookes is performing “OO” duties today in his famous original Andrews Heat for Hire Sunbeam Lotus. Darren Hayes is co-driving and John Leahy has supplied the car for Russell. Further changes include Jer O’Donovan making his first appearance in the ex Alan Ring GpN Impreza, quite a change from his usual Escort Cosworth. Anthony O’Connail is co-driving for Eamonn Daly and Paul Purtill in his Mk2 Escort is coming in from reserves and will probably start in the top 20. Looking outside Ennis to Co. Fermanagh Richard Cathcart & Martin Brady have won the Lakeland Rally from Sean Devine, both in Subaru WRC’s. More news after stage 1: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
