RALLY NEWS NO.1 Service/Delvin/Sunday
12.45
Tom Holton/Sean Walsh in their Celica lead a strong field on
this Castle MC Single Stage Rally. Enfield man Tom freely admits
that he “snatched defeat from the jaws of victory” 2 years ago. Tom
is hoping that he doesn’t make the same mistake this time and he
will be going flat out for a win, although he is taking the Celica
to Holland this coming week for the Golden Tulip Rally and won’t
want to do any damage today.
Event sponsor Jack Sleator is at No.2 with Timmy England
co-driving. Opel dealer Jack has hired a Group A Subaru Impreza
Turbo from Pat Norris for today (world rally cars are not eligible
to do this event). Jack has only driven a few miles in the Subaru
and said. “It’s a real fun car”. No.3 is a non-starter. Paul
McEnroe at 4 has just completed the famiiarisation run and reckons
there is something not quite right about his Subaru’s anti lag
system. James Foley/Lisa Roe are at No.5. This is Foley’s first
competitive outing for almost 10 months. James had been hoping to
drive one of his new Evo 10s today but homologation was in doubt
until yesterday. It has now been granted, but James is competing in
an Evo 9. Adrian Quinn at No.6 feels there is something not quite
right in the handling department of his lancer. Padraig Price at 7
has a few small problems with his Celica’s anti lag system to the
turbo. Mark Courtney is next up, running with 143 on the side of
his Lancer. Mark detected a little whiff of smoke during the
reconnaissance run and is hoping the car holds out for the day.
Next up is car 19 Andrew Browne in a Celica, then its Gordon
Rogers in his Escort and local man Joe Curran at 10 in a Derrick
Jobb hired Lancer. Joe is a wee bit at sixes and sevens with the
Lancer, diving for the handbrake when he’s trying to get the gear
lever! Eugene Ferry is next on the road, sandwiched between 10 and
11. Donegal man Eugene has bought Enda Keenan’s famous black
Escort, and is running with 136 on the side of the Ford. Eugene
used to be a great man in the Mk2 Escorts, but then switched to a
Lancer which he didn’t get on very well with, so has moved back to
the Mk2. The thing is, this is a very special Mk2 and Eugene is
pretty stunned at the power of the car, even spinning wheels in 5th
gear.
John Kelly is at 14 in a Lancer, he said the back of the
Mitsubishi seems to want to pass the front at times. Next up is
young Peter Wilson, co-driven by John Kilmurray. Peter is driving
Stuart Darcy’s Lancer today. It will be the first time for Peter in
a Group N car and it will be interesting to see how he goes. Thomas
McGovern, Raymond Drury, Mark Alcorn, Paul McCann and Mick Shaw make
up the top 20. McCann’s Escort Cosworth had intercom problems on
the familiarisation run so hopefully that will be sorted before the
first stage. Paul has had the Escort Cosworth up at Dominic
McNeill’s for a couple of weeks and he said that apart from the
intercom problem the car is in top fettle.
Further stories include – John Carter who sponsors the
RallyNews through his AA Insulation company, is driving Connie
Smith’s 4 wheel drive Sierra for the first time. Young Jane
O’Connor is doing her first rally. Jane is driving a Honda Civic and
has Francis Kenny co-driving. Mervyn Wedlock is OOing today, just
having got his Escort back fully repaired following his accident.
Today’s event is a round of the Sleator Opel Championship.
The series is class based but favourites for outright victory
starting this event are James & Joe Cassidy who have 3 class wins,
but not far behind is Andrew Lang/Oliver O’Reilly while 3rd
is Gene Callan.
More news after stage 1. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
www.rallynews.net
(with sincere thanks to Nick Markey & Ellen for
fixing our HW Printer!)
