Finnish driver Tapio Laukkanen is the man the top Irish drivers – Austin McHale, Derek McGarrity, Eugene Donnelly, Donie O’Sullivan and a whole lot more – here on this Circuit of Ireland, want to beat. Of all the events on the Irish rallying calendar, the Circuit is the one every driver wants on his CV and Laukkanen is the one man they all fear, almost certainly the benchmark. Tapio won the opening round of this Pirelli Tarmac Championship in Galway by the narrowest of margins from Eugene Donnelly. Narrow it may have been, but Tapio won. Austin MacHale and Derek McGarrity may have tasted the lead in Galway, but Tapio was the man. In the absence of Andrew Nesbitt, Tapio, seeded at 2, is seen as favourite. But then anything can happen, and generally does, on the Circuit. The rally may not be the long marathon of years past, but it is still a very tough rally with extremely demanding special stages, and it is, by modern standards, still a long event. The supporting cast to the main International Circuit is the Easter Stages, running ahead of the main Circuit today, and the National/Historic event running behind the main rally on Easter Sunday/Monday.

At scrutineering at St Angelo last evening, if anything Tapio seemed a tad apprehensive. It was discovered during the week that Tapio’s Phil Morgan prepared Subaru had some water in the engine oil, and a fresh engine from Prodrive was hurriedly fitted. Tapio commented, "The car is fine now, very good. But the stages will be difficult to drive, I will try to get to the finish with no mistakes, that is important." The nature of the stages is bumpy and jumpy, but still fast. Following the ‘recce’, some drivers liked them, some didn’t. Eugene Donnelly observed, "Unbelievably bumpy stages this weekend, these modern cars may stick it, but will the drivers?" Luck will doubtless play a part, and it’s all saying I’ll pace it, but if the battle’s there you have to rise to it!" Standing next to Eugene, waiting to sign on, Robbie McGurk, one of the favourites in the GpN part of the rally, laughed and said, "It’s not the roads that break cars, it’s the drivers!"

Also in the line-up at scrutineering was last year’s winner Derek McGarrity. He reported, "I’m really looking forward to it, especially the Sunday stages. In fact overall I like the stages. My car feels very good, there are lots of small things done to it since the Galway Rally." Austin MacHale was also in exceptionally buoyant form, had been for a test in his Focus WRC yesterday on a piece of private road that Gerry McGarrity had found for him outside Irvinestown and reported. "The new engine is very sharp, the car feels very good"

Austin runs first on the road, but keeps No.2 on his Focus, then its Laukkanen (3), McGarrity(4), Donnelly(5). Next up is Maurice Gass(8) in his Hyundai, this time with a change of co-driver in the shape of James McKee. The latter was to sit with Paddy White in his ex Makinen Impreza WRC, but Paddy who is just back from a flying visit to the States, has Damien Connolly sitting in. Donie O’Sullivan, fresh from winning the West Cork and Circuit of Kerry Rallies, is next up with his Focus WRC and could be a real dark horse this weekend. Tim McNulty is at 10 in his Impreza WRC, Paddy White at 11 and Daniel Doherty, making a welcome return to the stages, is at 12 in his Impreza WRC. Daniel joked, "I went for a test with the rally car at the weekend and the rust was falling off me in lumps, but the car was OK." Principal non-starters, besides Andrew Nesbitt, are Niall Maguire and James Foley.

Early news from the Easter stages is that top runner Gary White has retired with a broken gearbox on his Escort Cosworth. Unofficially we have Kieran Shaw fastest on 4.38, Kevin Lynch 4.42, Dick Curran 4.47, Denis Biggerstaff in McKinstry’s Subaru 4.49. Finally for now, a very happy Easter to all, and its also Lizzie P’s birthday today! – Drive safely. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON (with thanks to Kenny McKinstry for times). www.rallynews.net