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| Donegal Harvest Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.1 - Pre Start - Saturday @ 08:31:27 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.1 Seaview Hotel Bunbeg/Saturday
It’s 4 years since this Donegal Harvest Rally was here in Bunbeg, and its nice to be back, the region always very welcoming, with a great feeling for the rally. The ‘Harvest’ is the penultimate round of the Dunlop National Championship, the final round of the HASS Border Championship and in addition has a healthy Junior section. Local pride and competitiveness will spice the whole thing up, and the rally once again has an exciting entry.
Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman in their Subaru WRC lead the carsy away from the Business Park start just after 9 am to tackle the 9 special stages. Current National Champion Patrick, who won this rally last year when it was based at Ardara, told us before the start. “To win anything in Donegal is hard, you earn it. These are tough stages, bumpy and choppy, but the surfaces should be grippy. Everyone will have their work cut out, and the jumps could be bigger than anticipated”. He went on to tell us that when he tested his Subaru on Thursday, the engine blew, and a new unit was brought over from Prodrive on Thursday night to arrive into Robbie McGurk’s workshop at 03.00 yesterday. The car is up and running again, so should be OK for the rally. No.2 seed Niall Maguire reported all well with his Subaru. Niall currently leads the points, but when dropped scores are taken into account, Patrick Elliott probably still has the advantage. Patrick reckons he needs to finish in the top two or three here and on the final Skibbereen round to retain his title.
Kevin Barrett is another who will be in the thick of the race for top honours. Kevin won the recent Galway Summer Rally and is determined to give this event a real good go. He has lost a couple of stone in weight since Galway in his personal drive to be match fit, and also has had the engine of his Subaru rebuilt. PJ McDermott at No.4 is the highest seeded Donegal driver and with Francis Regan co-driving, could be a real force to be reckoned with, although PJ, not registered for the National series, won’t upset the equilibrium in that department. Seamus Leonard at No.5 has not competed in his Subaru WRC for quite a while, but Seamus, always ultra competitive, tells us that he is really looking forward to this, and thinks the stages are great.
Kevin Kelleher at No.6 has made the trip all the way from Clonakilty. He currently leads the GpN category on the National series and his main rival for the title, Garry Jennings is seeded right behind at 7. Kevin has a new ADR upgraded engine fitted to his Lancer and said that he can really feel the difference. However on the down side he got a bit of a shock last night when he unloaded his Lancer from the trailer and the rear differential broke. He has that fixed and is in top form for the rally. Similarly Garry Jennings is looking forward to the event and told us that there have been no real changes to his Lancer since he won last time out in Oldcastle. The one thing he would like to see is a bit of rain, which would equalise the power between the GpN and WRC machines. Damien Tourish was to be at 8 but he is non-starting which leaves Manus Kelly and Camillus Bradley in their Mk2 Escorts to round off the top 10. Indeed Mk2 Escorts will be a big feature of this Harvest Rally and there are some fantastic cars and drivers scattered throughout the entry list. Some well known names tucked away down the list include Rory Kennedy who is co-driving for his son Nigel in a Civic at 134, and James Cullen who is co-driving for his son Declan at 123.
Further non-starters: Seamus Gallagher who was to be at 47: Tom Muldoon (50): Anthony Cairns (51): Eamonn McCrystal (60): Interesting entries coming in from reserves include Sam Moffett who is driving the ex John McGlaughlin GpN Lancer, Jim McKenna in his rapid Starlet and Gavin Harris in his quick GpN Subaru. There are more changes and upgrades, which we will cover later. More news after first stage: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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