Between the Sperrins Rally on the Saturday and the Carlow Stages on the Sunday, last weekend provided some very enjoyable rallying. Derek McGarrity won on the Saturday and Wesley Patterson on the Sunday, although probably the most important thing was that both rallies went well, with no major hiccups.

On the Sperrins, Derek McGarrity, with Tralee’s Diarmuid Falvey co-driving in his Subaru, led through all the 7 stages close to Maghera. At the finish, McGarrity commented to CoC Stephen O’Neill, That was a very good rally, great stages, real ballsy!” Desi Henry pushed very hard throughout but had to accept 2nd place at the end, his older model Subaru perhaps just outpaced by the newer car in front. Desi was co-driven by Cork’s Liam Moynihan. Derek McGeehan/Arthur Kierans really cracked on in their Mini WRC towards the end to take 3rd, finishing just over a second up on Marty McCormack in his Fabia S2000. Paddy McVeigh was a bit disappointed to have stalled his Subaru on the final stage and so slipped to 5th, with David Bogie (Fiesta R5+) 6th.

Frank Kelly/David Vance had a great and very courageous run to finish best Escort, and 7th o/a. Camillus Bradley was expected to be the Escort man to beat, as he was on his home patch. However he admitted to being a little cautious to start and he finished 8th. David Armstrong was driving the ex Kevin O’Donoghue Escort and with Martin McGarrity co-driving finished a good 9th.

Once again there was much interest in the young drivers in the class R2 cars who were fighting for honours and points in the Carryduff Forklift backed ‘2015 R2 Wales’ initiative. Callum Devine in his new Opel Adam led initially but retired when the car suffered a broken driveshaft. This left the battle at the front between Jon Armstrong (Peugeot) and Rob Duggan (Fiesta). They both made conservative tyre choices early on. Armstrong gradually pulled out a small lead and eventually won by 16s, finishing 10th o/a, with Duggan one place back. Rob Duggan still holds the overall points lead. Calvin Beattie, who had Damien Garvey co-driving lost a few seconds when he put his Fiesta in a ditch early in the rally, but then had a good run for the rest of the day.

Overall the most important aspect of the rally is that it ran safely, on time and to schedule without the need for `early arrivals` and the competitors thoroughly enjoyed it.


Top 10 Finishers:
1st Derek McGarrity/Diarmuid Falvey (Impreza WRC) 32.53.6
2nd Desi Henry/Liam Moynihan (Impreza WRC) 33.08.1
3rd Derek McGeehan/Arthur Kierans (Mini WRC) 33.20.1
4th Marty McCormack/James O’Reilly (Skoda S2000) 33.21.3
5th Paddy McVeigh/Gary McElhinney (Impreza WRC) 33.24.9
6th David Bogie/Kevin Rae (Fiesta R5+) 33.51.4
7th Frank Kelly/David Vance (Escort) 34.11.2
8th Camillus Bradley/Crawford Henderson (Escort) 34.28.2
9th David Armstrong/Martin McGarrity (Escort) 35.30.5
10th Jon Armstrong/Noel O’Sullivan (Peugeot 208 R2) 35.39.5

Class winners: Cl.1: Michael McCarroll/Ronnie Craig (Fiesta): Cl.2: Clive Kilpatrick/Conor McGinity (Lancer N) Cl.3: Colin Price/Mo Downey (Corsa): Cl.4: Jon Armstrong/Noel O’Sullivan (Peugeot 208 R2) Cl.5: Eamonn Doherty/Damien McAuley (Escort) Cl.6: Paul McErlean/Niall McKenna (Escort): Cl.7: Frank Kelly/David Vance (Escort): Cl.8: Derek McGarrity/Diarmuid Falvey (Impreza WRC): Cl.9 Derek McGeehan/Arthur Kierans (Mini WRC): Cl.10 Stephen Mawhinney/Nigel Magee (Sunbeam): Cl.11 Seamus O’Connell/Sean Magee (Escort).

Quite a few crews then ‘de-camped’ from Maghera on Saturday evening to head to the Seven Oaks in Carlow Town for the rally on the Sunday. It was Lisburn’s Wesley Patterson in his immaculate Mk2 Escort, co-driven by Johnny Baird, who took a grandstand 0.1s victory over Steve Wood/Keith Moriarity (Impreza WRC). Declan Gallagher/Ryan Moore were given the opportunity to drive Pat Donegan’s Escort and they did well to finish 3rd. Paddy McVeigh was leading after 5 stages but crashed his Impreza WRC out on a narrow fast section in stage 6. Just a handful of seconds then separated the top four with just a few stages to go. The lead slipped away from Steve Wood when his Impreza sustained a cracked manifold, allowing Patterson through, just!

Wesley commented later that he had been a bit too careful early in the rally as regards tyre choice – the damp roads quickly dried up and although there looked to be the possibility of rain showers, it didn’t happen. For the last loop Wesley fitted ‘slick tyres’ and really went for it. He reckoned his Escort had never gone better. He did have a major moment on the last stage when he out-braked himself for a chicane, his Escort’s front panel getting a knock. However there was no steering or suspension damage and he lost little or no time, resulting in victory, by just 0.1s – it doesn’t come any closer than that – not with rally timing anyway!

Carlow Top Ten Finishers:-
1st Wesley Patterson/Johnny Baird (Escort) 1.00.23.6
2nd Steve Wood/Keith Moriarty (Impreza WRC) 1.00.23.7
3rd Declan Gallagher/Ryan Moore (Escort) 1.00.31.8
4th Mark Straker/Michael Coady (Darrian) 1.00.42.6
5th David Condell/Eugene McGrath (Escort) 1.00.52.6
6th Adrian Hetherington/Gary Nolan (Escort) 1.01.19.3
7th Liam Howlett/Enda Kennedy (Escort) 1.02.17.8
8th Enda O’Brien/John Butler (Escort) 1.02.22.2
9th Michael O’Brien/James O’Brien (Focus WRC) 1.02.26.3
10th Sam Smyth/Alan Smyth (Escort) 1.03.11.1

Class winners:- CL1 Padraig Denton/Robbie Murphy (Civic): CL2 Declan Byrne/Evan Downey (Civic): CL3 Emmet Lyons/Kevin Purcell (Integra): CL4 Neil Tohill/Gerard Tohill (Lancer): CL7 Steve Wood/Keith Moriarty (Impreza WRC): CL9 Neil Phelan/Joe Hearns (Escort): CL10 Niall Fitzpatrick/Gary Fitzpatrick (Escort): CL11F Brendan Stone/John Kiernan (Civic): CL11R Derek Walker/Shane Walker (Toyota TC): CL12 Leo Doyle/Gordon Manley (Escort): CL13 Alan Doherty/Colm Doherty (Cora RWD): CL14 Mark Straker/Michael Coady (Darrian): CL15 Kevin Dalton/Don Keating (Impreza): CL19 John Moynihan/Sean Moynihan (Escort): CL20 Michael O’Brien/James O’Brien (Focus WRC): CL23 James Glynn/George Campbell (Escort): CL24 Paul Doyle/Robert Nolan (Escort): CL25 Liam Howlett/Enda Kennedy (Escort): CL26 Wesley Patterson/Johnny Baird (Escort): CL17 (Juniors) James Bradley/Maria Kehoe (Civic).

Also last weekend was the Manx National Rally and Jason Pritchard/Phil Clarke in their Focus WRC took the victory from Damian Cole/Jack Morton, also in a Focus WRC. Arron Newby/Rob Fagg survived a trip into the scenery with their Subaru and finished 3rd. Paul Bird appeared to be heading for a win but lost a lot of time towards the end when his Focus WRC sustained a puncture and he decided to retire. In the bad weather conditions of the Friday night, Melvyn Evans retired his Subaru with an electrical problem.

This weekend, besides the ‘North West’ motor bike races, the McRae Rally Challenge takes place at Knockhill in Scotland and the BTRDA Plains Rally promises plenty of action in Wales.

Even before the weekend starts the Tour Britannia Rally pays a fleeting visit to Ireland and will feature tests at Sally Gap and Mondello. Just one of several drivers making the trip includes two times FIA Regularity Historic World Champion Joe Reynolds. Joe will be driving a 1950’s MG Magnette. Steve Griffith will share the driving. Joe is certainly fond of his rallying – for this one he has to take the Jonathan Swift fast ferry across the Irish Sea on Tuesday afternoon. Following the start at Great Orme in Llandudno it will be back to Ireland on the Jonathan Swift on Wednesday afternoon for stages over Sally Gap. On Thursday, following a couple of races at Mondello, they will be back on the Jonathan Swift to go back to Wales and the finish. On Friday it will be time to come home – yes you’ve guessed it – on the Jonathan Swift! Instead of Gullivers Travels this is Joe Reynolds Travels!

For the McRae Rally Challenge, Alister McRae is flying in from his base in Australia and he will be driving a similar Proton Satria to the one in which he won the 2011 Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. Citroen is laying on a full house Citroen Xsara WRC in the same livery and specification to Colin McRae’s 2003 Rally Finland entry. Entrusted with hurling this iconic car around Knockhill will be Colin’s protégé Kris Meeke. One part of the event is a junior section, and young Peter Bennett has shown the initiative to get over there and compete, with Arthur Kierans co-driving. It looks like there will be no shortage of action, as well as some very interesting cars on this increasingly prestigious event at Knockhill.

Also this weekend, one of the top Belgian co-drivers, Eddy Smeets, has helped to put together a package to assist Stephen Wright in his Fiesta R5 compete on the Sezoens Rally, round 5 of the Belgian Championship. The rally is 30% loose, 70% asphalt and the stages are located near Bocholt, close to the border with Holland. Top drivers will include Freddy Loix and Kris Princen. Interestingly, in view of the speculation taking place at the moment regarding 2.0 litre World Rally Cars competing on future Irish Tarmac Championship rallies, there will be WRC cars competing on this Sezoens Rally on Saturday. The organisers make sure they are welcome, but the points are structured so that it will be difficult for WRC crews to win the Championship, and it will be much more likely to be an R5 crew that takes the honours.

At the Plains Rally, Josh and Sam Moffett in their respective Fiesta WRCs will have some formidable opposition through the classic Welsh forests. Other top drivers on the rally include Euan Thorburn (Focus WRC), Dave Weston (Focus WRC), Hugh Hunter (Impreza WRC), Damian Cole (Focus WRC) and Charlie Payne (Fiesta WRC). The name of the game for the two Moffett brothers is of course to get some gravel experience before moving on to the European Championship Azores Rally, but obviously it would be good if they could get a top result against the BTRDA regulars. As ever, the BTRDA rallies are brilliantly organised – and that is why this Plains event has 170 entries. Tucked in at 79 is young Jordan Hone driving a Micra, with his father Paul co-driving. For Jordan the rally will be a means of building up further experience, and as he ably demonstrated on the recent Somerset Stages, he is showing decent speed as well.

Looking further ahead, Cavan Rally CoC Stephen Kellett has planned an innovative route for the 23rd/24th May Kilmore Hotel Cavan based event. The stages are up towards Ballyconnell, skirting past the Slieve Russell Hotel as well as the wind farm where the late Bertie Fisher helped to organise the Summit Rally in 2000. Stephen Kellett has picked different stages of course, more akin to old Circuit of Ireland territory. The first stage in particular is very special, a good length, very technical and challenging, a lot of driving in it. The 2nd stage is short but very good, the 3rd is longer, fast, very challenging. Each stage is repeated three times. Although this year’s Cavan Rally is on an opt-out from the Triton Showers National Rally Championship, the event is on course to attract a full and interesting rally, perhaps due to the fact that some top drivers will be using it as a warm-up for the Donegal International in June.

Also taking place that Cavan weekend, former top driver Sean McArdle is holding an ‘Irish Rally Legends Show and Dance’ in the Marquee at Sheils, Tassagh, 9.00pm Sunday Night. This is a big effort by Sean and all the proceeds go to the Marie Curie Cancer Care. Many top drivers, past and present, have promised to be there on the night.