One of the most famous rally stage names in Ireland, indeed in Europe, is Molls Gap. That famous stage name stirs evocative thoughts of the great and good of Irish rallying past and present. Well, this 30th running of the Killarney Lakes is running Molls Gap back to back on Saturday morning, and then once on Sunday morning so the drivers will certainly be getting some memorable value for money this time. Tarmac Champion Eamonn Boland in his Subaru will lead the cars on that opening stage, with some great drivers behind, including former Tarmac Champion and current points leader Eugene Donnelly 2nd on the road in his Skoda and Gareth MacHale 3rd in his Focus WRC.
Eamonn Boland starts with No.2 on his Subaru as, now well documented, Kris Meeke who was to be at No.1 is non-starting. Also missing from the top ten is Derek McGarrity who was to be at 5 and Peadar Hurson (7). This leaves Tim McNulty 4th on the road, but still carrying No.6 on his Impreza, and Patrick Elliott 5th in the order, National Champion Patrick still having the No.8 on his state of the art Impreza WRC S12b. Denis Cronin (Subaru) and Aaron MacHale (Focus WRC) round off the top 10. Denis’ nephew Keith will hopefully perform OO duties on the rally in his British Championship leading Lancer.
In Tarmac Championship terms its Eugene Donnelly who leads on 32 points, with Gareth MacHale 2nd on 22 and current Champion Eamonn Boland 3rd on 12. There may be still a long way to go in the Championship, but it is never too soon to start winning, and that’s exactly what Eugene Donnelly has been doing this year, scoring victories on the opening two rounds, Galway and Circuit of Ireland. Indeed, on grounds of cost Eugene hadn’t really planned to do this OSI Killarney Rally, but the lure of the stages along with a chance of winning another Tarmac Title were too much of a temptation. In one respect, Eugene can afford to play the percentage game for the rest of the series. However he has astounded all the rally pundits by the speed and handling of his supposedly underrated little Skoda. Gareth MacHale has shown on both the Galway Rally and the Circuit that he has got the speed, but at times it has been a case of step forward and two back. Gareth commented earlier this week, ‘This rally has a lot of heritage for me, if I don’t win, it won’t be for the lack of trying.” However, the rally is wide open in terms of winning.
Former GpN Tarmac Champion Colm Murphy is making a return to the sport after a rally lay off and he starts at No.12 in his Impreza with Munster Joinery man Alan Ring next up at No.14 in his Lancer. Shaun Gallagher is the highest seeded GpN driver at No.11 in his Lancer. Sean has James McKee, who was to have co-driven for Derek McGarrity, in the hot seat. Sean Flanagan is at No.15 in Kevin Kelleher’s Evo 9. Sean is currently the joint Group N leader with Alan Carmichael in the Tarmac Championship. Carmichael is giving this rally a miss which opens the door for 3rd placed Jer O’Donovan in his Impreza and also Rory Byrne who is equal 3rd in his Lancer. Byrne is seeded down at No.42 so we will have a bit of trouble initially keeping an eye on his progress. Interestingly, young Craig Breen is seeded at No.44 in his Fiesta and Craig is 5th in the GpN points just ahead of Joe McGonigle. This weekend Joe has a new co-driver, Kim Baker from the Isle of Mull, on her first visit to the Killarney Lakes. Making a welcome return to the GpN ranks is MIS supremo Dermot Hanafin, who starts at 63, with Claire Mole co-driving in an Impreza.
Some further changes to the published entry list include: John Joe Fleming is non-starting: Tommy Doyle was to be at 28 but following a tough rally in Belgium last weekend he will not start the Lakes. Marty McCormack was to be at 43 in his Citroen C2R2 Max but Marty has been totally tied up this week with work and is unable to make the start. Sean Duggan was down to co-drive for Tom Randles but is now co-driving for Kyle Orr. Provisionally Anthony O’Conaill is now co-driving for Willie Power in his Darrian at No.26.
Other categories in the rally will cater for the Juniors, the Historics and integral to the International Rally the Fiesta Sporting Trophy. Young Cork driver Damien McCarthy heads the Junior section in his Civic with David Guest at J2 and David O’Riordan at J3 both in Hondas. Denis Moynihan heads the Historic list in his Escort from Derek Boyd in his Porsche and Joe Connolly next in his Escort.
More news after Molls Gap: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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