Last weekend’s Bushwhacker rally attracted 100 entries, with 92 cars actually starting the Omagh MC event. Despite the wet weather, the stages through the forests such as Lough Bradan and Carrickaholton were in good condition – smooth and fast as ever, a feature that has helped them grow large in rallying folklore over the years. It was a major landmark for Mark Donnelly and his co-driver Stephen O’Hanlon to take a well deserved victory in their Fiesta S2000, their biggest rally win. Adrian Hetherington/Gary Nolan in their Corolla WRC did lead for much of the day but had to settle for 2nd at the end, while Niall McCullagh/Ryan McCloskey in a hired McKinstry Motorsport Impreza WRC had a very strong run towards the end to capture 3rd place.

Adrian Hetherington and Mark Donnelly set an equal fastest time on the opening stage. On the very fast 2nd stage Lough Bradan North, Hetherington edged ahead. It was then nip and tuck between the two, Donnelly perhaps hampered by the slightly lower top speed of his S2000. On the other hand the S2000 may have been a little more nimble through the tight chicanes.

At first service outside Castlederg Hetherington had 7s in hand over Donnelly, with Martin Cairns in his Fiesta WRC a solid 3rd, but 25s behind the flying Corolla WRC. Through the early afternoon stages Hetherington kept his lead fairly constant, and was 10s ahead going into stage 9 Slieveadoo. Unfortunately for Hetherington his Corolla WRC incurred a puncture, the flailing tyre wrecking a mudguard before stage finish. Adrian did well to only lose 20s. In stage 10, Glenderg, Donnelly was fastest which meant victory was his. It was glory for Donnelly, heartbreak for Hetherington. There was supposed to be 11 stages, but the final one didn’t run as a tow truck fell over into a ditch and the hazard was deemed unsafe for the competitors at rally speeds.

While all this drama was going on at the front Niall McCullagh, in only his second outing in a WRC car was closing in on the leaderboard. Niall had lost a good few seconds in stage 4 when he out-braked himself on a 6R into SqL and stalled the Impreza. During the afternoon Niall set a couple of fastest times which meant he got ahead of Martin Cairns in his Fiesta WRC for the final podium place.

Darren McKelvey had a fine run to 5th place in his Lancer. Pat O’Connell made the trip from Co.Tipperary worthwhile by taking 6th in his similar Mitsubishi.

Kenny McKinstry finished 7th and commented afterwards. “A very good rally but we lost time at the chicanes when we stalled, they were very tight”. Seamus O’Connell/Sean Magee in their Escort Mk2 were a very impressive 8th o/a and ‘best 2wd’. John Gordon/Thomas Wedlock were the next Escort home, in 14th and 1m back from the vastly experienced O’Connell. Paul Britton/George Tinsley were best in GpN, finishing 11th o/a with their Mitsubishi. Callum Devine swapped from his Opel Adam R2 to a Lancer for this event and finished a creditable 16th o/a and 2nd in GpN.

Those not so fortunate included Patrick O’Brien in his Lancer. Recently Patrick has gone very well when he had a clean run, but his Lancer had all sorts of woes on this one including having to jam the turbo boost full on and then breaking a driveshaft, which brought the Mitsubishi grinding to a halt in stage 3. Ironically his brother Francie in his Escort broke down at the same corner, also with a broken shaft! Also out with a broken shaft was Kyle White in his Citroen C2R2Max. Derek Crossen put his Escort off the road in stage 5 and Vivian Hamill stopped with a broken wheel on his Escort. Frank Wray’s Impreza WRC stopped with an electrical issue. Both Josh Moffett and Paul Barrett were non-starters.

Liam Regan hasn’t driven on a rally for two years and was going quite well on this one until his unique Peugeot 206 4x4 lapsed onto 3 cylinders for 3 stages. Liam fixed the problem at service, went well in the afternoon and finished 17th.

Derek McGarrity’s Fiesta WRC seemed to have a lack of turbo boost throughout the day. Derek described it as. ‘It was happening intermittently, the car kept going into road mode despite resetting the ECU at the start of every stage”. He kept going and finished 10th, but still should be on course to claim another NI Rally Champion’s title. Derek’s young son Michael was competing in a Fiesta R2 and spent 3 minutes in a stage 3 ditch but then improved through the day, although he did finish well down the order. Ashley Dickson finished down in 5th GpN having lost time with a major moment on a Killeter jump where his Lancer suffered a broken brake pipe.

Top Ten:-
1 Mark Donnelly/Stephen O’Hanlon (Ford Fiesta S2000) 29m57.0s
2 Adrian Hetherington/Gary Nolan (Toyota Corolla WRC) +12.0s
3 Niall McCullagh/Ryan McCloskey (Subaru Impreza WRC S14) +7.0s
4 Martin Cairns/Gary McElhinney (Ford Fiesta WRC) +25.0s
5 Darren McKelvey/Graham Henderson (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) +15.0s
6 Pat O’Connell/Mark Wiley (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo9) +11s
7 Kenny McKinstry/Noel Orr (Subaru Impreza WRC S14) +3.0s
8 Seamus O’Connell/Sean Magee (Ford Escort Mk2) +03.0s
9 Cathan McCourt/Brian Hoy (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9) +04.0s
10 Derek McGarrity/James O’Reilly (Ford Fiesta WRC) +19.0s

Class Winners:-
1 Neil Harron/Mark Thompson (Toyota Corolla)
2 Paul Britton/George Tinsley (Subaru Impreza N12)
3 Mervyn Galbraith/Aine McGuigan (Vauxhall Nova)
4 Alan Smyth/Mac Kierans (Suzuki Swift)
5 Bryan Jardine/Lloyd Cochrane (Ford Escort Mk2)
6 John Gordon/Thomas Wedlock (Ford Escort Mk2)
7 Seamus O’Connell/Sean Magee (Ford Escort Mk2)
8 Darren McKelvey/Graham Henderson (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9)
9 Adrian Hetherington/Gary Nolan (Toyota Corolla WRC)
10 Mark Donnelly/Stephen O’Hanlon (Ford Fiesta S2000)

PS – fast forward 10 years and think of some young rally reporter harking back to the 2015 & 2016 Bushwhacker results. Ah, he or she may think, Mark Donnelly from Omagh won it two years in a row – wrong – it was of course a different Mark Donnelly last year, although he also comes from Omagh!

Looking forward to this weekend – there should be plenty of rally action on the go, what with the Tarmac shoot-out on the Cork ‘20’, as well as the excitement of the top WRC drivers tackling the tortuous roads of Corsica. On the latter event Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle will again be in action, joined in the Citroen team by Craig Breen/Scott Martin. Interestingly, Craig has possibly more experience of the tough, and in places dangerous, Corsica stages than Kris Meeke. However both drivers will be up against not just the terrain, but the best rally drivers in the world on an event where, unlike Finland, the seeding will make little or no difference. Sebastien Ogier and Jari Matti Latvala in their respective VW Polo R WRCs will probably be the pace setters, but maybe, just maybe, their all-conquering aura isn’t just as solid as it was. We shall see. The Hyundai and Ford M-Sport teams are steadily closing the performance gap. The 2015 Citroen DS3WRC is still a brilliant car as well, and Kris and Craig should be in the thick of the action. It is all to play for, and should be very interesting. Elfyn Evans/Craig Parry, despite their contract theoretically having finished for this season, are on the entry list in their M-Sport Ford Fiesta R5. Fresh as he is from winning the Manx last week, the young Welshman has another opportunity with this one to hit the headlines.

As regards the AceSigns Cork ‘20’, it is all to play for as regards the Clonakilty Blackpudding Tarmac Championship. Following an excitingly close year, the Tarmac Champion’s spotlight is on Keith Cronin and Alastair Fisher, with the Moffett brothers Sam and Josh still in with a chance of the title. Jonny Greer, a very creditable 3rd on this year’s British Championship, is in line for another top placing here, as is Stephen Wright. The cat amongst the pigeons as regards winning the rally, but not the Tarmac Championship, is Roy White/James O’Brien in their Fiesta WRC, running at No.3 on the road. They are on the crest of a rally wave, having won the Triton Showers National Championship, and a top result here would be the icing on the cake. Roy has good experience of the Cork ‘20’ stages, and indeed is a great supporter of the rally. He adds a certain amount of class to the rally. It will be a major surprise if he is not in the mix on this one, and it is just a pity that WRCs are ineligible to score overall Tarmac points. But that, on its own, is a whole different story.

As regards the Tarmac Title, we keep going back to Cronin and Fisher. Keith has the greater, certainly more recent experience of theses stages, as he has been 2nd on the last 2 years. Alastair hasn’t done the rally since 2010. The stages though are relatively open and fast, and with a decent recce and a good set of notes Alastair Fisher shouldn’t be at too much of a disadvantage. He is certainly up against a tough opponent in three times British Champion Keith. In theory Keith’s Citroen R5 should be, in performance terms, much the same as Alastair’s Dom Buckley prepared Fiesta R5. It should be a very interesting contest. In addition, the Moffett brothers have shown tremendous speed at times during the year, as has Jonny Greer. It could be a rally where every second really does count! There are several other drivers who possibly won’t be too far away either – Owen Murphy in his Skoda S2000 springs to mind, while Brendan Cumiskey is improving in leaps and bounds with every outing in his Fiesta R5. Dundalk Volkswagen dealer Brendan struggled initially with his left hand drive car, but he seems to be getting on top of it now. A late entry is Clonakilty’s Kevin Kelleher, to drive a McKinstry Impreza WRC S14, which could put a cat amongst the pigeons!

The National category should also be hotly contested, with drivers such as Eugene Meegan (BMW), Jason McSweeney, Ross Marshall, Jason Byrne in their Mk2 Escorts likely to provide plenty of action. Phil Collins has been out of rally action for a while because of illness and he makes a welcome return in his Escort. In GpN David Guest, already with the Tarmac category won, should be the man to beat, while Clonmel men Gus and Pat Kearney in their respective Sepam backed Lancers are sure to be going flat out to clinch the runner up Tarmac GpN spots. Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of the rally will be the race between some very talented young drivers in R2 cars – Callum Devine (Opel Adam), William Creighton and Marty Gallagher, both in Peugeot 208 R2s are just three who spring to mind. There is a Junior section in the rally as well, plus Historics.

Two further rallies coming up fast are the Donegal Harvest (8th October) and the Down Rally (15th October). The former, based at the Bayview Hotel in Killybegs is the final round of the Triton Showers National Championship, whilst the latter is the final counter in the McGrady Insurance NI series. Karl Reid is the CoC of the Harvest, and he, indeed the Donegal MC in general, has pulled out all the stops to make the rally very special and a wonderful tribute to the late Martin Howley, as well as prominent club members Davy Wasson, Joe Breslin and Gerald Hunter. Karl has picked 4 stages ( 2x2 & 2x2) which encompass every type of road and will present a real challenge. A bonus is that two of the stages go through villages (Glencar & Glencolcille) and should provide a terrific atmosphere. As well as that, the service area is on the quayside in Killybegs, which should be fairly unique.

The entries for the rally are fairly flying in, and just a sample of the quality is that they include last year’s winners Declan & Brian Boyle in their Fiesta WRC, Garry Jennings/Rory Kennedy in their Impreza WRC, while other top drivers in World Rally Subarus include Niall Maguire and Manus Kelly. Joe McGonigle plans to debut his new Skoda R5. There will be a big turnout of Mk2 Escorts, Corollas and so on.

Another special entry will be F1 pundit Tony Jardine, a great friend of the late Martin Howley’s. Tony will be co-driven by Alan Harryman, who is co-driving this weekend for Ryan Champion on Rally Yorkshire in one of the very special Mitsubishi Lancer World Rally Cars, as was seen in Donegal some years ago in the classic battle between Andrew Nesbitt and Mark Higgins.

Meanwhile the Down Rally, which is being run by Rathfriland MC, has two beautiful stages, each run three times, through the drumlins. Paul Biggerstaff is the CoC and he reports that entries are coming in really well for the rally.

Finally for now, it is with great sadness that we mark the passing of Ann Caddye, wife of the late Danny Caddye. Virtually since the inception of the Donegal MC, Ann helped in all the rally offices over the years. She was a really nice person indeed and very helpful to everyone associated with the rallies. . It was such a pleasure to have dealings with her over all that time. No matter the pressure, Ann was always really pleasant and decent. She was ‘one of a kind’ and we will miss her. We pass our condolences to all her family and friends.
Brian & Liz Patterson and Family