RALLY NEWS NO.1                      Oldcastle - Sunday  12.30

Ron Neely flagged this Castle Hellfire Rally off from the idyllic Lakeside Manor Hotel setting in motion what has all the makings of a splendid event. Ron Neely? Hellfire?  Yes, the ever-enthusiastic Clerk of the Course, Breen McNamee, has revived the classic legendary Hellfire name.  Ron Neely was the last winner, co-driven by RESPA beds supremo Thosh Kellett.  In those days Neely road tested many of the RESPA beds as well as the fastest Mini Cooper in the country!  Today's No.1 seed, Tim McNulty, in his fire spitting 4 wheel drive Subaru may be a far cry from the days of the Mini Cooper, but the rally has all the special ingredients today just as it had in the late seventies and early eighties.

Behind McNulty it is Ivan Stewart in his Escort Cosworth, local man Paul McCann in a similar Ford, and then Tom Holton at 5 in a Celica and father and son Enda and Dessie Keenan, both in cracking Mk2 Escorts at numbers 6 and 8.  Dessie is fresh from 2 gruelling days on the Ulster Rally - covering himself with glory in his Peugeot 106.  The Peugeot is being driven today by his sister Laura.  Laura is co driven by Claire Hegarty. There is one other all-ladies crew and that is Castlebar lady Sandra McFadden co driven by Imelda Duffy seeded at 125 in a Nova. Laura is at No.72. They will be having their own battle for the Ladies Award. James Cole at 9 in the Celica and James Foley in a Lancer make up the top 10.  Foley runs in the gpN category, which should be just as hotly contested today as the overall result. Dominic Loughran in a similar Lancer, James Cribben in an Impreza, Martin Brady in an Escort Cosworth, Willie Fannin in a Lancer and Adrian McElvaney, another fresh from the Ulster, all drive group N cars. No.7 has been left vacant in respect of the memory of Joe McGurk.

Main non-starters from the advertised programme list include Patrick Elliott, who was to be at No.2, but his Subaru is not yet repaired after its accident on the Galway Summer last Sunday. Noel Conaty at 19 is another non-starter.

Local hero Rory Galligan is doing some of the OO/course car duties today in his works Peugeot 206 and indeed some of the factory personnel are on hand here at Oldcastle to look after Rory, and also have the Peugeot simulator here on site. 

No.1 seed Tim McNulty commented when he had completed the familiarisation stage "It is streaming wet out there, very very slippy. Its going to be a finishers rally, one slip up and its over. But then single stage events are always a bit like that".  Bench mark gpN man James Foley echoed some of McNulty's thoughts when he told us "Never saw roads so slippy. I touched the brakes on a 2 left and the car went into the ditch. Of course the brake bias isn't right since they banned the valves. I'm hoping Dunlop can give me some special rubber. Honestly, it's like ice out there, I could pull out very handy".  Dominic Loughran said "It's a bit of a nightmare out there and I think the chicane is too tight. The organisers have used silage bales and if you hit them it's like hitting a wall. There is shiny tar as well into the chicane." More news after stage 1.      BRIAN AND LIZ PATTERSON      www.rallynews.net