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| Nenagh Stages 2009 |
| RALLY NEWS No.1 - Pre Start - Sunday @ 08:13:47 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.1 Abbey Court Hotel/Nenagh/Sunday morning early
Current Champion Patrick Elliott in his fabulous Impreza WRC S12b heads the cars out of Nenagh for this opening round of this season’s Dunlop National Championship. Gareth MacHale was supposed to be No.1 on the road but there has been a slight technical problem with the paperwork for his Corsa Super 2000 machine. It’s a shame really, because Gareth was due to test the new car this week and was really looking forward to this rally. Clerk of the Course Cathal McGrath has laid on some great stages for the drivers, fast and pretty smooth through the Tipperary countryside. This is Patrick’s first rally of the year and he has been testing his Subaru in Co. Monaghan and despite a few dramas everything went well. As the cars went through scrutiny Patrick tried on a new Stilo closed face helmet and Hans device. He used open faced in the past, but the emphasis now is fully on safety. His co-driver Paul Goodman commented about their recce, “Everything is going well so far. The morning stages will be fast and open and will suit us better than the roads in the afternoon. If it is wet it will be tricky. It’s desperately important on this championship to be consistent, and keep scoring. A zero points score to start would not be good. We finished 10 out 10 rallies last year and that’s what won us the Championship.”
Top drivers who will be doing their best to deprive Elliott of this year’s title include Niall Maguire, Kevin Barrett and Jim Harrison, all in Subaru WRC’s. Former multiple champion Niall Maguire commented after his recce. ”Nice stages, the last one will be tricky, especially if its wet, and tyre choice will be difficult. I’m going to try my best.” Jim Harrison has had a lay off from the sport for the last couple of years and it will be interesting to see what sort of a pace he sets. Behind this leading bunch is a very strong fine up of Group N machinery. Anthony O’Halloran is the top seed amongst the Group N category drivers and Ruan man Anthony starts at 6 in his Lancer. Kevin Kelleher is at No.7, Kevin is the current GpN Tarmac Champion, and he has a change of co-driver for this year. Donegal man Paddy Robinson is in the hot seat. Eamonn Daly led the Dunlop GpN category last year but had misfortunes towards the end of the season and he starts at No.9. Sean Flanagan is at 10 in his GpN Impreza. Fermanagh’s Garry Jennings will carry No.171 on his Lancer but will almost certainly get slotted in somewhere with the top drivers. Former GpN Tarmac Champion Garry has Martin Brady co-driving. Sandwiched between the group N cars and running at No.8 is Brian O’Mahony in his dramatic Renault Clio S1600. It was late in the morning before Brian arrived into Nenagh to start his ‘recce’, his Clio just having been rebuilt, and his only opportunity for a test drive was early on Saturday morning.
Just outside the top 10 Tralee man Thomas Fitzmaurice is at No.11. Adrian Quinn is at 12 and Donegal brothers Trevor & Kenny Bustard are at No.15, all in Lancers. The Bustards have a new car for this event, an Evo 8.5, and they have only had a short test in the new machine so the rally will be a bit of a learning curve for them. Just behind the leading GpN cars are the top Mk2 Escort exponents with Trevor Mulligan, Mike Quinn, Ed Synan and Gary Reidy at 16, 17, 18 and 19. Then at 20 it is David Percy in his ex factory Escort Maxi. Outside the top 20 there are many really quick drivers and this tough rally could produce some surprises on the leaderboard at the end of the day.
Just over 150 cars will start the main rally from a permitted maximum of 160, which in these financially straitened times is pretty good. Just some of the non-starters besides Gareth MacHale include Paul McEnroe (was to be at 14): Pat Spain (was to be at 25): Stephen Cullen (32): About 14 Junior crews will start the rally at lunchtime and compete over the afternoon stages. Some stories from scrutineering include: Billy Coleman Award winner Ross Forde has young Manxman Robert Fagg co-driving for the first time, and they are using a Fiesta here.. David Percy has had a lot of work done on his Escort Maxi, and is hoping for a good run here on home ground. Eamonn Daly has a new Lancer built since last year, and ADR have had a fair input with the new car, although Eamonn told us that although the new car is superb, he doesn’t yet have a ‘feeling’ in it, and perhaps he doesn’t have quite the right springs fitted.
Kirkistown Rally: Fine weather and a good ‘buzz’ brought big crowds to Kirkistown to see Derek McGarrity dominate, with defending NI Champion Connor McCloskey finishing 2nd and Kenny McKinstry, also running a Focus WRC 3rd. Dennis Biggerstaff was 4th, and Seamus Leonard, having lost a few seconds baulked by a slower car, 5th. Raymond Johnston won GpN from Cahal Rogers and Wesley Patterson dominated the 2WD category and was in the top ten. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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