The Imokilly Single Stage event last weekend ran like clockwork and Lisburn man Wesley Patterson, with Johnny Baird co-driving, certainly showed all his old flair by powering his Escort to a decisive win. Roy White had his co-driver from many years ago, Des Cooney, on the notes this time and although it took them a while to settle down, they came through strongly at the end to reinforce their runner up spot. Barry Meade/Eamonn Hayes were 3rd in their Escort.

Wesley Patterson commented at the end. “It was a great stage, and we had a good run. I was a bit nervy leaving service as there were reports of rain, but it came to nothing, and there was so much heat in the air anyway the road would have dried immediately. On the final stage I didn`t want to do anything stupid, and I knew 98% would be enough.” White wasn`t too disappointed at the result. Roy has the cylinder head of his car re-engineered to take different spark plugs, in an effort to avoid further breakages. The car performed without a problem, which leaves Roy on course for his Stonethrowers Rally.

The single stage, run three times, comprised of mostly fast sweeping farmland roads in a loop between the villages of Castlemartyr and Ladysbridge. Wesley Patterson in his Cl14 Escort was the only driver to beat the 10m barrier on the first run through the 19km stage. Last year`s winner Roy White was a surprising 7s in arrears, with Cork`s Barry Meade just 0.1s further back. Pat Donegan seemed to be the only top ten retirement his Escort suffering a misfire. Darragh O`Riordan`s entry was withdrawn before the rally.

On the 2nd running of the stage, White pushed hard and was only 3s slower than Patterson, but that still meant the gap at the front was up to 10.6s with just one stage to go. Barry Meade lost a bit of time to Roy White, but stayed 3rd. Frank Kelly in his Escort improved from 5th to 4th, to get ahead of Jason Ryan in his Starlet. However, Kelly was still a fair bit off Patterson`s pace.

Roy White then pulled out all the stops and set fastest time of the day on the 3rd and final stage. However this superb effort by Tipperary man White wasn`t enough to secure his 2nd victory and Patterson won by 6s. Barry Meade set his fastest personal time of the day to hold on to 3rd. Brian O`Keefe in his Impreza finished 11th o/a to win the GpN category. Young Stephen McCann, who was 6th o/a, wasn`t running in GpN this time, but instead was driving a class 20 Lancer that he has obtained with the intention of competing on a few forest events. Stephen will revert to his GpN car for the Ulster.

Imokilly Single Stage Rally 2014
1st Wesley Patterson/Johnny Baird (Escort) 29.35.0
2nd Roy White/Des Cooney (MGS2000) 29.41.2
3rd Barry Meade/Eamonn Hayes (Escort) 29.55.9
4th Frank Kelly/Mo Downey (Escort) 30.04.8
5th Jason Ryan/Tadgh O`Sullivan (Starlet) 30.25.5
6th Stephen McCann/Breen McNamee (Lancer) 30.41.6
7th Mark Dolphin/Finbarr Quirke (Escort) 30.53.7
8th Alastair Cochrane/Gary McElhinney (Escort) 31.04.6
9th Allen Treacy/Bob Fitzgerald (Corolla) 31.07.1
10th Tom Flaherty/Patrick Curley (Escort) 31.25.1
Class Winners: - CL2 Brian O`Mahony/Michelle Gallwey (Civic): CL4 Brian O`Keefe/Sean Hayde (Impreza N): CL6 Kevin Dolphin/Martin O`Brien (Clio): Cl7 Paul Bruton/Thomas Bruton (Civic): CL9 Eamonn Barrett/Ger Ryan (Escort): CL10 Jason Kinsella/Fran Kinsella (Nova): CL11F Jason Ryan/Tadgh O`Sullivan (Starlet): CL11R Paul Scannell/Mossy Griffin (Escort): CL12 Vincent Collins/Jane Collins (Escort): CL13 Alastair Cochrane/Gary McElhinney (Escort): CL14 Wesley Patterson/Johnny Baird (Escort): CL15 Eddie Power/Mark Bowens (Corolla WRC): CL16 Kenneth Quirke/Sean Hegarty (Civic): CL18 PJ O`Dowd/Donal Balfe (Sunbeam): CL20 Roy White/Des Cooney (MGS2000).

Also last weekend was the Harry Flatters Rally over the asphalt roads of Epynt. Damian Cole, driving his Focus WRC, won by 2s from Mark Straker (Darrian). Melvyn Evans, driving a Fiesta R5+ was 3rd. In the RAC Historic Championship section Co Down`s Stanley Orr had another brilliant result, 4th o/a and first in class. Jimmy McRae was 5th o/a in his Firenza. Tomas Davies won the rally from David Stokes, both in Escorts.

The Helsinki Rally Battle took place last weekend between Champions old and new, all driving VW Polo R WRC`s on the waterfront quaysides in Helsinki. Mads Ostberg came out on top from Marcus Gronholm, on what was reportedly a spectacular action packed evening.

Looking forward to this weekend there will be rally action at home on the Maiden City Club`s Dogleap Rally at Shackleton-Ballykelly. The REIS Asphalt Championship contenders, headed by Damian Cole in his Focus WRC, will be contesting the Tyneside Rally. Cole has won the rally for the last three years! Of supreme interest though will be the WRC Rally Finland.

Top entries meanwhile on the Dogleap should include last year`s winner Kieron Graffin, current NI Champion Derek McGarrity, Alan McGeehan, George Robinson, Fintan McGrady etc. An interesting entry will be that of Motorcycle Road Racing Champion Michael Dunlop, fresh from his big win at Armoy last weekend. Dunlop is tipped to be driving Brian Brogan`s Escort.

The rally is also a round of the McGrady Insurance Junior 1000 Championship and Stan Harper`s 15 year old daughter Alex in a Micra will be competing up against the likes of William Creighton, Phillip Whyte, Peter Bennett and Eoghan Bogue. CoC Ian Connolly has pointed out that although the rally has a decent entry, and there has been a late surge, however he will take further entries right up to the weekend.

Finland is of course the rally all the stars want to win, and no doubt current World Champion Ogier and his VW Polo R WRC, having been victorious last year, will be the yardstick again this time. It is such a fast, tough and unpredictable rally of course though that anything can, and probably will happen. Who is to say it won`t be a Ford, a Citroen or a Hyundai making the pace at the weekend. Home interest will centre on Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle in the works Citroen, as well as Craig Breen/Scott Martin in their Fiesta WRC, plus Alastair Fisher/Gordon Noble in their Modern Tyres backed DS3R3t, bidding for JWRC points.

Looking further ahead, the seeding for next weekend`s Stonethrowers Rally had not been done as we were putting Irish Notes together, but the entries we do know about would indicate that the Dunlop National Championship is going to swing back into action after the summer break with quite a flourish. Declan Boyle, Hugh Hunter, Paddy McVeigh, Alan Ring, Donagh Kelly, Darragh O`Riordan, Steve Wood, Mick O`Brien, Kevin Barrett, Kevin Kelleher and Josh Moffett are all in the mix. CoC John Ward has picked three interesting, friendly stages handily placed to Clonmel. The three stages will be run three times each, with service in Clonmel, at the racecourse. There will even be a very interesting `00` car. Andrew Fanning will be making the debut of his new 4x4 Focus. The body shell was prepared in Poland, the engine is by Mountune, a lot of the running gear is Lancer, and Phillip Case has engineered the finished package.

Coming up shortly is the Ulster Rally, and the organising Northern Ireland Motor Club report around 140 entries, with a few spaces left and the closing date on the 30th July. The rally would appear to have a really top entry. Just one of the entries of note is young Jon Armstrong, who was such a giant killing sensation last year in his R2 Fiesta. Jon reckoned he wouldn`t make the rally this time, but a change of fortune means he will be able to compete.