Irish Notes 22nd April 2015

Rallying action on the WRC this weekend shifts to the other side of the world, to Argentina. All, or nearly all the top WRC drivers and teams are due to be in rally action there. The one exception is Robert Kubica who, although he has shipped his car all the way there, has withdrawn from the rally. By all accounts the route is again spectacular. The stages are huge, and traverse spectacular terrain, although some stages have had to be shortened due to flood ravages leaving chasms. Despite this world class scenario, there seems to be very little excitement permeating to here surrounding the rally. In fact the rally buzz seems to be heading Monaghan’s way this weekend, as Sunday’s Triton Showers National Championship counter has attracted, in Irish terms, a stunning entry.

Obviously the Monaghan Rally is on a completely different and lower wavelength to a round of the World Rally Championship. However the fact remains that there is at least as much interest from rally fans here as to whether No.1 seed Sam Moffett can withstand the pressure of Donagh Kelly, Declan Boyle, Niall Maguire, Josh Moffett and a whole lot more breathing down his neck, as to whether Ogier can stay top dog against the likes of his VW team mate Latvala, or for example Neuville for Hyundai, Meeke and Ostberg for Citroen, or Evans and Tanak for Ford.

In the Triton Showers series Donagh Kelly has made a dream start and leads the points, his cause helped by not only winning round 2, but the power stage as well. Niall Maguire seems to have a new lease of life this season and is 2nd in the points, with Chris Armstrong 3rd and leading the 2 wheel drive charge. Defending Champion Declan Boyle is down in 7th in the points, misfortune negating his massive speed so far this season. Perhaps Alan Ring in the Melvyn Evans Subaru could spring a surprise as he has surely had a confidence boost by his win in Kerry last weekend. Munster Joinery man Alan is 6th in the points table, behind early leader Garry Jennings as well as Kevin Barrett. Kevin has a great affinity with Monaghan and should go well. Jennings has been without a gearbox for his Subaru for some weeks, and as well his lovely baby daughter Annie has broken her leg, so Garry will stay on the sidelines for the moment.

However, the possible Championship permutations are endless. Just some of the drivers not mentioned so far include Steve Wood, but he is moving to new business premises and may give Monaghan a miss, even though he is going well in the Nationals these days. He should be back in rally action for Carlow. John Stone could make the trip across the Irish Sea worthwhile by putting his Skoda WRC into a high placing, while Roy White, Gary McPhillips, Frank Kelly and a whole lot more will surely not be a mile away. Indeed, the race between these drivers, over the twisty demanding Monaghan stages should be meteoric. Sam Moffett in his Fiesta WRC is No1 seed, with his brother Josh at 5. The action between these two should be frenetic, let alone the other top seeds, so is it any wonder the rally is creating a buzz.

As well as the 140 entries in the main field, there are over 40 reserves, and there are nearly 20 juniors, which is all fairly overwhelming to say the least. Also this weekend, on Saturday, is the Lark in the Park Border Hopper Rally and some top drivers entered include Donagh Kelly, Derek McGeehan, Joe McGonigle, Adrian Hetherington, Anthony Cairns, Kieron Graffin, Martin Doherty and many more.

Also this weekend, the Cartell.ie Rally of the Lakes ‘recce’ gets underway. The rally is a round of the Tarmac Championship, the Southern 4 and the European Historic Championship, so should be a cracker of an event – more details next week. One really interesting entry which should cause a ripple amongst the regular ‘Tarmac’ contenders is Robert Barrable in the McKinstry Subaru Impreza S14. Leading the recent Circuit of Ireland, and winning West Cork a couple of seasons ago is a strong reminder of just how talented a driver Robert is.

Meanwhile, looking back to last weekend, Killarney’s Alan Ring, with Adrian Deasy co-driving in his Impreza WRC scored a start to finish win on the Kerry Stages. Five times Circuit of Ireland winner Derek McGarrity, also in a Subaru, was 12s back in 2nd place. McGarrity had local man Diarmuid Falvey co-driving. Welshman Steve Wood held 2nd for most of the day, but was just pipped by McGarrity at the end and was 3rd. Wood had Keith Moriarty co-driving in his Impreza WRC.

The rally is usually a counter in the National Championship but this was an ‘opt-out’ year and Tom Barrett had wisely designed the event with a more compact economical route. He opted for two decent length classic stages, each repeated three times, with central service in Tralee. The Kerry club was rewarded with a decent entry.

Munster Joinery’s Alan Ring is more or less on home soil regarding this Kerry Rally. He has enjoyed winning success there in the past, so it was no surprise to see Ring, driving a Melvyn Evans prepared Impreza WRC as No.1 seed and favourite for victory, and he was fastest on the opening stage. However close behind Ring’s Subaru were 5 more Impreza WRCs, driven by Steve Wood, Derek McGarrity, Daniel Cronin, Paddy McVeigh and Kevin Barrett.

There were no times for stage 2, Desmond’s Grave. Stage 3, a repeat of stage 1, Mount Eagle, saw Alan Ring again top the time sheets, as he did on stage 4. When the cars returned to Tralee service, Ring had a 5s lead over Steve Wood, with Derek McGarrity a further 5s back. Daniel Cronin was 4th and gradually getting to grips with WRC motoring. Kevin Barrett was having a consistent run and had gradually upped his pace to inch ahead of Paddy McVeigh. The latter was still coming to grips with his recently acquired ex Patrick Elliott Impreza.

On the penultimate stage Derek McGarrity set a fastest time but was still over 5s behind Steve Wood in the race for 2nd. On the final stage though Wood lost a few seconds which allowed McGarrity through to the runner up spot. There was no displacing Alan Ring though. He set a scorching time on the final stage to reinforce a fine drive which saw him win by 12s from McGarrity. Daniel Cronin held on to 4th, resisting a late charge from Kevin Barrett.

Paddy McVeigh in 6th was happy enough to chalk up some high speed miles and build on his experience and finish safely. Paul Purtill finished 7th in his Escort following a remarkable drive and took best ‘2wd’ honours from Barry Ryan in 8th, also in an Escort. Mike Quinn was pushing hard for Escort honours but crashed out of 8th position in stage 5. Ed O’Callaghan was also in the Escort hunt but dropped from 8th to 34th in stage 4 when his Escort went on to its side. O’Callaghan fought back to 21st. Pat O’Connell/Mark Wiley had by their standards a subdued rally to finish 13th and win GpN in their Lancer. Derek Daly/Brian Doherty in their similar Mitsubishi survived an overshoot to finish 2nd in GpN, just 2s behind O’Connell. Phillip McKibbin/Michael Stack won the Historic category in their Mk1 Escort. Patrick Lawlor/Kevin Rohan won the Juniors by 24s from Sean McGrath/Bill Shealy, both crews in Civics.

Provisional Top Ten:-
1st Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy (Impreza WRC) 39.38.3
2nd Derek McGarrity/Diarmuid Falvey (Impreza WRC) 39.50.9
3rd Steve Wood/Keith Moriarty (Impreza WRC) 39.51.8
4th Daniel Cronin/Shane Buckley (Impreza WRC) 40.13.1
5th Kevin Barrett/Sean Mullally (Impreza WRC) 40.17.7
6th Paddy McVeigh/Gary McElhinney (Impreza WRC) 40.26.7
7th Paul Purtill/Paul Kelly (Escort) 41.10.6
8th Barry Ryan/Emmet Sherry (Escort) 41.25.8
9th Eoin Doyle/Peter Brennan (Focus WRC) 41.34.8
10th Don Keating/Ella Ryan (Impreza) 42.21.7

Class Winners:- CL1 Richie Dalton/John Smithwick (Civic): CL2 Hazel O’Callaghan/Christopher O’Callaghan (Peugeot 106): CL4 Pat O’Connell/Mark Wiley (Lancer): CL5 Kieron Graffin/Paddy Robinson (Subaru N16): CL7 Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy (Impreza WRC): CL9 Pat Ryan/Jack Dalton (Escort): CL10 Con Mulcahy/John Nugent (Nova): CL11F Colin Moynihan/Liam Moynihan (Civic): Cl.11R Ken Ryan/Keith McCarthy (Escort): Cl.12 Arthur & Mac Kierans (Escort): Cl.13 Paul Purtill/Paul Kelly (Escort); Cl.14 Enda O’Brien/John Butler (Escort): Cl.15 Daniel Cronin/Shane Buckley (Impreza): Cl.20 Don Keating/Ella Ryan (Impreza): Cl.18 Phillip McKibbin/Michael Stack (Escort mk1) Cl.16 Patrick Lawlor/Kevin Rohan (Civic)

Also last weekend was the Somerset Stages, where Dave Weston/Kirsty Riddick took victory in their Impreza WRC, from Jamie Anderson/Jon Scott in their Mitsubishi WRC. Paul Bird was flat out for BTRDA points but his Focus WRC broke its water pump belt early on and he was forced to retire. Young Jordan Hone, co-driven by his father Paul in his Nissan Micra, made the trip from here worthwhile by taking 4th in the 1400 class and was 33rd overall. All things considered this was a good performance from Jordan. He was seeded at 91 so the stages were well rutted by the time he was going through. Indeed at one point the car’s rear beam was damaged and cracked, and the Bowler Land Rover guys who were servicing next to the Micra helped out brilliantly with a bit of welding.

Interestingly, there has been a change of the rules on rallies under MSA jurisdiction and the ‘small’ two wheel drive cars can no longer run at the front. There can be no separate sections of rallies; the entry is to be seeded as a whole, fastest cars first. This means the small cars face the roughest of the conditions, and some crews are already considering their future as regards forest rallying.