Last weekend was certainly busy as regards rallies, what with Rally Spain, the Down Rally as well as the Limerick Forestry. In Spain Sebastien Ogier in his VW clinched his 4th World Rally Champion Driver’s title. Conditions were difficult and Ogier, co-driven as usual by Julien Ingrassia, was harried most of the way by Dani Sordo and Thierry Neuville in their respective Hyundai WRCs. However the VW pilot kept his head and his foot down in an impeccably accomplished manner. Kris Meeke in his Citroen was unlucky to have a minor roll early on. He recovered from that brilliantly, and despite a few more incidents was back up to 5th until his DS3 WRC’s engine gave up the ghost on the last morning. His Citroen team-mate Craig Breen also had problems during the rally, including having only 2wd for a couple of stages. However Craig earned a lot of respect in the way he held things together and came back into 10th. Fermanagh’s Jon Armstrong and his co-driver Noel O’Sullivan in their Fiesta R2 won the Drive DMack section and were pronounced Rookie Champions, which earned the pair 2 runs on the WRC next season in an R5. Osian Pryce & Dale Furness are the overall Champions and they also get two R5 runs.

On Saturday’s Down Rally atrociously wet weather didn’t dampen Camillus Bradley’s spirits and he took a start to finish win in his Escort. Camillus was under pressure throughout the rally from Damian Toner in a similar Escort and Camillus set a scorcher of a time through the final stage to finish 9s up on Damian. David Armstrong tried to make it an Escort top three, but his example got stuck in a stage 4 hedge. Instead it was Derek McGarrity who recovered from a dismal few stages when he was lying outside the top 20, his Fiesta WRC windscreen completely fogbound, to blast into 3rd at the end as the weather improved. This was enough to propel Derek to his 7th NI Rally Champion’s title. The Down event was the final counter in this year’s McGrady NI Rally Championship. Kenny McKinstry also had misted up screen problems, plus his Impreza WRC had gear selection maladies, so he did well to capture 4th, with John Devlin (Sunbeam) 5th and Alastair Cochrane (Escort) 6th. Alastair had no recce for the event. Plus his co-driver Gary McElhinney was ‘out of sorts’, so they did well. Although John Devlin won the class on the day, Alastair takes the category in the NI Championship.

Despite the terrible weather through the early stages, all the drivers that we spoke to thoroughly enjoyed this Rathfriland MC organised event, and thought the asphalt stages over towards Banbridge were very good. The rally was centred at the beautiful Castlewellan Forest Park, and there was no shortage of stories. The first shock was when Jonny Greer’s normally ultra reliable Citroen DS3R5 spluttered to a halt on the opening stage when its petrol pump reportedly refused to play ball. Wesley Patterson crashed his Escort into a house in stage 2. The drivers did say that there were rivers of water flowing down the roads. Brendan Cumiskey looked to be heading for a podium finish but he beached his Fiesta R5 on the final stage. He did make the finish eventually but was well down the order.

Clive Kilpatrick was on course to win GpN on both the rally and the NI Championship, but he put his Lancer off the road on the final stage. This handed both honours to Colm McFall. Despite damage to the front and rear of his Suzuki Swift Alan Smyth had a dazzling run to win class 4 from Kyle White (Citroen). Adam Bustard was in the mix but put his Fiesta R2 off the road – on a road section. Andy Johnson had a great run in his Chevette HSR to win the Historics from Drew Wylie (Escort). Drew did enough though to take the honours in the Championship. Next year’s dates have now been posted by Paddy McCollum on the ANICC website – click on to www.anicc.org.uk/Calendar.aspx

On the Limerick Forestry Josh Moffett had a start to finish win. The only driver who could realistically have challenged Moffett was Desi Henry, but the Portglenone man had a terrible opening stage and lost a lot of time, but hauled himself back to 2nd. Darren McKelvey/Graham Henderson caused a ripple of surprise by taking 3rd in their Lancer. Shane McGirr/Aileen Kelly had a great run to take 4th o/a and best 2wd in their Toyota Starlet.

In Valvoline Irish Forestry terms, the rally was significant in that two of the front runners, Michael Carbin and Ger Lucey in their respective Lancers, didn’t make the finish. This brings Desi Henry into the Championship spotlight for the final round, the Glens of Antrim rally, which is in Desi’s home territory. Michael Carbin had been 6th at the half way point, but then a couple of punctures and a transmission vibration brought his Lancer to a halt. Ger Lucey retired his Lancer on the first stage.

In the two wheel drive section, Shane McGirr is looking very strong for the Championship, although his closest rival John Gordon finished just a couple of places further back, and that was despite a puncture on the first loop. Last year’s 2wd Champion Mickey Conlon departed the fray early in this rally when his Escort overshot the first chicane and got beached.

On the opening stage, Glenstal, Josh Moffett was 26s faster than 2nd placed Michael Carbin. Desi Henry really struggled on that opener. His Skoda suffered a puncture, as well as a broken alternator belt. A trip into the scenery didn’t help either. He managed to hold 7th, but was over a minute down on Moffett. On stage 2 Henry was fastest and then on stage 3 Josh Moffett had another very quick time, almost 20s faster than Desi. Niall Henry had been in the top ten during the morning stages, but a puncture, which caused damage to the front suspension of his Lancer, and then a slipping clutch, meant retirement at midday service.

Through the afternoon stages Moffett was able to cruise, and concentrated on keeping out of trouble, particular avoiding the worst of the stones that had been dragged out by cars cutting corners on the first loop. Desi Henri’s fastest times through the afternoon soon moved him ahead of Darren McKelvey, who finished 3rd. Shane McGirr overcame a stage 3 misfire in his Starlet on his way to 4th.

Dermot Kelly, who was the forestry Champion many years ago and is making a fresh foray into rallying, soon got to grips with his newly acquired ‘Evo 9’. His Lancer has a sequential box, plus all the whistles and bells. He finished 5th, but admitted there was a lot more to come from the car. John Gordon rounded off the top six in his Escort. GpN was won by Ed Muldoon (10th o/a) from Ashley Dickson (12th o/a), both in Lancers. Dickson had his Lancer’s suspension adjusted at service following a puncture and was going well in the afternoon until another puncture dented his progress.

A young driver who did really well was Derek Mackeral from Monaghan. He finished 11th o/a in his Corsa and won his class. He seemed to be heading for the top ten until a puncture intervened. A measure of his enthusiasm was that he had travelled down the day before the forestry and competed on a major navigation rally during the thunderstorm blighted Saturday night. He finished 2nd o/a on the navigation event, so that wasn’t a bad weekend for the young man.

Top Ten:-
1 Josh Moffett/Emmet Sherry (Ford Fiesta R5) 45m20.2s
2 Desi Henry/Liam Moynihan (Skoda Fabia R5) +1m02.6s
3 Darren McKelvey/Graham Henderson (Mitsubishi Evo9) +2m03.4s
4 Shane McGirr/Aileen Kelly (Toyota Starlet RWD) +04.7s
5 Dermot Kelly/Greg Shinnors (Mitsubishi Evo 9) +35.6s
6 John Gordon/Thomas Wedlock (Ford Escort Mk2) +04.2s
7 John Byrnes/Brian Grant (Mitsubishi Evo 8) +1m05.5s
8 David Crossen/Chris McSherry (Ford Escort) +15.7s
9 Ian Graham/Liam McIntyre (Mitsubishi Evo 9) +44.0s
10 Ed Muldoon/Mark Byrne (Mitsubishi Evo 9) + 15.2s

Classes
4 Ed Muldoon/Mark Byrne (Mitsubishi Evo 9)
5 Josh Moffett/Emmet Sherry (Ford Fiesta R5)
9 Colm Kearns/Terence McCabe (Ford Escort Mk2)
10 Tom Murphy/John Lynch (Ford Escort Mk2)
11F Barry McMahon/Ultan McGowan
12 Ray Benskin/Peadar Walsh (Ford Escort Mk2)
13 Shane McGirr/Aileen Kelly (Toyota Starlet RWD)
15 Brecan McBreen/Breen McNamee (Subaru Impreza)
16 Derek Mackeral/Daire Hayes (Vauxhall Nova)
20 Darren McKelvey/Graham Henderson (Mitsubishi Evo 9)

Upcoming events, apart from this Saturday night’s Tarmac Championship awards evening in Galway’s Clayton Hotel, include this weekend’s GSMC rally at Baltinglass and then the Fastnet Stages at Bantry on the 30th October. Keith Cronin/Mikie Galvin will be crowned Tarmac Champions at the Clonakilty Blackpudding Tarmac Championship ‘do’. Not so widely recognised is that 3 times British Champion and now Tarmac Champion Keith has also won this year’s FIA Celtic Rally Trophy, part of the European Rally Trophy.

Not a rally, but an interesting event is the Hewison Autotest Championship weekend at Sligo on the 29th & 30th. Also that weekend is the small matter of Wales Rally GB, penultimate counter in the World Rally Championship.

Despite not being a round this year of the Triton Showers National Championship, the Fastnet is getting a reasonably strong entry, with such names in the ever increasing list as Joe McGonigle in his new Skoda R5, Brendan Cumiskey in his Fiesta R5, Cal McCarthy (Citroen C2R2), Wesley Patterson and Ed Murphy (Escorts).

On Rally GB both Kris Meeke and Craig Breen will be action for the Abu Dhabi Citroen team, both with their usual co-drivers Paul Nagle and Scott Martin. Indeed the top end of the entry appears much the same as the other rounds, with three Volkswagens, three Hyundai’s and a scattering of Ford Fiesta WRCs. New British Rally Champion Elfyn Evans is listed well down the list (No. 31) in a Fiesta R5, with Craig Parry co-driving. David Bogie is at 52 in his Skoda R5 and former Ulster Rally winner Osian Pryce is at 51 in a Fiesta R5. Killarney’s Rob Duggan, co-driven as usual by Ger Conway is entered in a two car Vauxhall Adam team with Chris Ingram/Elliott Edmondson. The two Vauxhall team cars are backed by ‘Network Q’. Rob was in line for a drive in any case, part of his reward for winning the British Junior Rally Champion’s title in the Vauxhall Adam.