RALLY NEWS NO.1 Carrick-on-Suir/Sunday morning
This weekend’s Ravens Rock Rally is a round of several major championships, including the Dunlop National series, the Thomond Crystal Southern Four and the Triton Showers South East which has led to a high class entry. There are also categories for historic cars which doesn’t necessarily mean historic drivers. Plus junior crews, some of who are in fairly old cars! Cavan man Patrick Elliott and his co-driver Paul Goodman are first on the road in their Subaru and they, along with all the other drivers, face a challenging route laid out by Clerk of the Course Pat Shiel. One of the special stages is ‘Slievenamon’, a fast gravelly narrow road around the mountain the stage is named after. If you look at the rally map, the outline of the mountain resembles the closely packed lines of a massively enlarged thumbprint, those lines representing the height contours, which gives some indication of the tricky terrain facing the drivers.
This stage was traditionally the happy hunting ground of the late great Frank Meagher and he could take time out of the best drivers in the world there. Indeed, some of the best drivers have competed on it from the days when the Circuit of Ireland went though Co Tipperary. There is even a bridge in the stage, nicknamed ‘Vatanen’s’, where Ari upended his Escort! So, the Slievenamon stage, which will be run three times during the day, is just one of the hurdles Patrick Elliott and the other drivers will have to overcome before whoever wins will uncork the champagne at the Carraig Hotel finish ramp. Patrick is hopeful that the engine anti-lag problem that hampered him so much in Limerick, is now cured. Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry in their Subaru currently lead the National Championship having taken over the top spot when Elliott crashed out on the final stage on the that Circuit of Munster event. Kevin Barrett/Sean Mullally are at No.3 in their Subaru, and it will be these three, Elliott, Maguire and Barrett, who will battle it out for ultimate National Championship honours.
A wild card this weekend is young Keith Cronin and his co-driver Greg Shinnors in their GpN Lancer. They currently lead the British Championship and are competing here this weekend as for a warm up for the Isle of Man Rally a fortnight hence. That’s not to say they wouldn’t mind winning here, but really the name of their game is to clock up some competitive asphalt miles. Keith reckons its time the turbo was changed on his Lancer, but he’ll wait until after here, and put the new one on.
The GpN battle on the rally should be fascinating anyway. Garry Jennings is at 5 in his Lancer and he has a different co-driver this time, Damien Connolly. Kevin Kelleher is at 8, and he has a different co-driver also, Adrian Deasy doing the honours this time. James Foley is at 9, and he is giving the new Evo X, complete with a new suspension set-up, another run to see of the bugs are ironed out. Thomas Fitzmaurice is at 10 in his Lancer and Tralee man Thomas, who currently leads the GpN points in the National series, has been getting some assistance from Keith Cronin in setting up his Lancer. Mark Nangle is down at 23 in his GpN Impreza, and he could score some very useful Thomond Crystal points this weekend. Another very interesting GpN entry is 18 year old Dave Weston from Scotland running at 16 in his Ramsport prepared Impreza N14. Dave, on only his 3rd tarmac rally, and his first in Ireland, has multiple British Champion Mark Higgins here with him, which is a measure of how seriously he’s taking the job. The battle of the modified cars should be equally frenetic and Mike Quinn is the top Escort seed at No.7. John Somers at 14 in his Celica is another looking for Southern 4 points, Eddie Power at 15 is really coming to grips with the ex-John McCarthy Corolla WRC. Kevin O’Donoghue in his beautiful Escort is seeded at 140, but should start higher. These are just a sample of the drivers who will be fighting for ‘Modified’ honours.
Some of the drivers to watch out for in the various class battles include Daragh O’Riordan in his Clio, complete with new engine, and the two top Citroens of Marty McCormick and Andrew Hockridge. All three are in class 6 and all three are also on a warm-up for the Manx. Daragh also has a fair chance of moving into the lead of the Southern 4. Southern Crystal man Don Montgomery is co-driving for Mark Kane, their Citroen C2R2, complete with new gearbox and are seeded at 63, one place behind Andrew Fanning in his Puma, Andrew hoping for a re-seed. Local man Brian Wilson of Surelite Engineering is down at 76, Brian not a bit bothered, as he hasn’t had his GpN Impreza out rallying since this time last year! A new car to the rally is the most beautiful BMW M3, a French Championship car, and it is being driven by Eamonn Murphy. Further co-driver changes include Alastair Wylie now with Eamonn Daly at No. 11. Robert Nolan co-driving for James Travers in the Clio at No.19. Darren Garrod is with Andrew Hockridge at No.21. All in all it looks like being an action and interest packed Ravens Rock. More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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