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| Banna Beach Kerry Mini Stages |
| RALLY NEWS No.1 - Pre start - Sunday @ 10:02:23 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.1 Banna Beach/Sunday morning
This Kerry Mini Stages Rally, under the direction of C of C ‘birthday boy’ Jakes Kelly would appear to be on course and ready to go for today’s four special stages. The rally, which has attracted a strong entry, is the final round of the Top Part West Coast Championship and is being sponsored for the 21st time by Willie Murphy and his Banna Beach Resort. This sponsorship must be some sort of record for its longevity, and Willie, who has taken time away from his extensive business interests in America to be here in Kerry this weekend, has, through his sponsorship, once again demonstrated his great loyalty and fondness for the organising Kerry Motor Club.
Local man Thomas Fitzmaurice in his ‘TLI’ backed Lancer will lead the cavalcade of 125 competing cars away from the Banna Beach Resort Hotel for the first of the four stages. Fitzmaurice led this rally last year and eventually finished 3rd following a couple of very minor hiccups. Yesterday driving rain and big puddles dominated, this morning it’s clear and frosty and Fitzmaurice was in fine form in the run up to the start and said. “I’m really looking forward to it, its my favourite rally”. Generally speaking, competition is so close on this Banna Beach Kerry rally that the slightest slip can cost a driver places. James Stafford in his Darrian is 2nd on the road today and indeed also led the rally last year. Eventually Stafford tied for the win with Keith Cronin, only to be relegated to 2nd on the ‘tie-break’ rule. No doubt James will want to go that wee bit better this time. Third on the road today is Monaghan’s Shane Maguire in his GpN Impreza, and if Shane can get a decent result here today he could emulate his father Niall by winning the Top Part West Coast Championship.
Mike Quinn is No.4 and is the highest seeded Escort. Sean Flanagan is at 5 in his GpN Impreza and has one of his mechanics, Diarmuid French, co-driving. Sean has already won our RallyNews Group N Award on the National C/ship, so the pressure is off now and this is a chance for him to relax now and give one of the team a chance to have a run out over the stages. Alan Ring at 6 has a new engine in his Lancer so this will be a good shake down for the car. Stuart Darcy was to be at 7 and Ed Synan at 8 but they are non-starters. Terence O’Shaughnessy is at 9 in his Escort and Alan O’Callaghan rounds off the top 10 in his GpA Impreza. Alan had to withdraw from his last rally in Skibbereen when his Subaru misfired badly. He has a new bag tank fitted to the car now, plus all the fuel lines have been cleaned, so hopefully he’ll have a good run this time.
If there was an award for the nicest car at scrutiny it would probably go to the Escort crewed by Fergus O’Meara/Liam Brennan. The metallic blue Mk2 Escort has been years in the building by Camillus Bradley. It has got the 2.5 Millington engine plus all the whistles and bells. From an engineering and finish point of view it is stunning. Some further changes to the top end of the entry list include Liam Howlett (No.16): Paul McEnroe (No.18) non-starting. Jim Casey is now co-driving for Eddie Kennelly at No.41. Paraic Cummins/Graham Kelly will carry the no 146 on their Escort G4, but start in the top 20.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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