Mediterranean sunshine this week has meant the drivers on this Cartell.ie Rally of the Lakes having a fabulous recce through the Kingdom of Kerry stages. Last year’s winner Denis Cronin will head the competitors away for the opening Molls Gap stage on Saturday morning. Denis’ Subaru Impreza WRC has been totally rebuilt and he has a new co-driver in the shape of Coleman Hurley. It is many months since Denis competed on a rally so considering all the circumstances it will probably take him a stage or two to get warmed up.
Tim McNulty, with Paul Kiely co-driving as usual, starts at No.2 in his stage of the art Subaru S12B. McNulty said this afternoon that everything is “hunky-dory”. On last year’s event he was out-pacing the field but then his Impreza suddenly developed a mechanical fault that caused retirement. Tim has 3 outright wins under his belt so far this season and barring mishap he is more than capable of making it 4 this weekend.
Kevin Barrett/Sean Mullally are next up in his Triton Showers backed Subaru. Kevin finished 3rd o/a on last weekend’s Circuit of Ireland but his car suffered from very wayward handling. When the McKinstry mechanics got the car into the workshop this week they discovered that a screw in the transmission hydraulic system filter had come adrift and there was no pressure on the differentials. Then they discovered there was a problem with the engine and a spare has been fitted. On a test session after all the work the turbo blew. To cap it all Kevin Barrett has hurt his back. However, he is undeterred although he is ruing the fact that he has 4 major rallies in 4 weeks – an d still has a business to run!
Daragh O’Riordan from Cork is next up in his Subaru world rally car. Daragh has taken a bit of time to get into the groove with this new car but it is getting better all the time and the young Plant Hire Contractor from Midleton is well capable of springing a surprise this weekend. Aaron MacHale was to be at No.7 but he has withdrawn his entry. This means that local man Alan Ring will be next out of the blocks with his Lancer Evo9. Alan and his co driver Adrian Deasy were heading for a good result last weekend on the Circuit but then mechanical problems intervened on the last 2 stages and they slipped down the list. This cost them a couple of places in the Tarmac Championship and Alan will be anxious to make up for that lost opportunity here on his home rally.
Barry Meade and Fergus O’Meara are at 9 and 10 in their potent Mk2 Escorts with Donegal man Martin McGee in another Escort at 11 and former Tarmac GpN Champion Ger O’Donovan is at 12 in his distinctive green GpN Impreza. That is just a taster of the entry on this Rally of the Lakes. A big feature will be the battle of the 10 Citroen C2R2s in the Citroen Racing Trophy. There are 2 drivers from New York, both competing in Lancers; Liam Egan is at 59 and Martin Donnelly at 60. Fifteen Historic cars will tackle the stages headed by former Historic Champion Philip Wylie in his MGB. There are over 20 Juniors and a really good selection of the Group B Classic Cars heading the cavalcade. It should be an interesting weekend.
More news in the morning: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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