RALLY NEWS NO.1                                 Ennis – Sunday morning early..

This Clare Stages Rally, penultimate round of the Dunlop National Championship, presents not just the fascination of a head to head between the leading Championship aspirants Ray Breen and Charlie Donnelly, but also has several top drivers in the line up not normally seen on the National scene. Not least of those top drivers is former multiple Tarmac Rally Champion Kenny McKinstry, driving a Subaru WRC. Banbridge man Kenny has Harvey Bell co-driving. Harvey normally sits with Jim Harrison, but Jim has decided to give this rally a miss, however he may be back for the final Dunlop round in Skibbereen. When asked which car he was using, McKinstry gave a wee laugh and replied, “It’s basically the Nesbitt S9 with the Harrison engine. I’m really looking forward to the rally; I haven’t done one of these National events for a while. I know the pace will be hot, I’ve no expectations, just see how it goes. I reckon the first stage, it’s so narrow, will be very difficult, for everybody.” Kenny will have the number 136 on the side of his left hand drive Subaru, but will provisionally run 4^th on the road.

London based Limerick man Ollie O’Donovan, with James O’Brien on the pace notes, in his Subaru leads the capacity field away today. Ollie won the rally last year, and he’ll certainly be trying to repeat that feat, but he is only too aware that, with the quality of the entry here today, winning will be no easy task this time. Ray Breen at 2 in his Focus WRC has a substantial lead in the Championship, following a strong run of victories. Ray says the car is as good as he can make it, and the name of the game for him now is to make no slip-ups at the final two hurdles, this rally and Skibbereen.  

Maghera man Charlie Donnelly is at No.3 and drives one of the ‘family’ Corolla WRC’s he shares with his brother Eugene. Charlie was unfortunate not to have won the last round, in Galway, where a puncture deprived him of the spoils. In Championship terms he needed that result, and today’s event is really, in Championship terms, the last chance saloon for Charlie. Reigning Dunlop National Champion Niall Maguire runs at 5 in his Subaru. Monaghan man Maguire has, in truth, been in mediocre form for many of the rallies of this season, and has no hope now of retaining his title, but fair play to him he has stuck with it and he does seem to be in much better fettle this weekend, so could have an interesting result. Niall is great chums with Kevin Barrett, but he’s now in a big race with Kevin for 3^rd in the Championship.

Former National Champion Paul Harris is at 6, and drives his yellow 2 door GpA Impreza. Paul has taken a rallying back seat of late, so its great to see him out here, as he is always a very exciting driver. His last outing was the Donegal International in a hired Impreza WRC. The last time he used this car was to win the Donegal Harvest. He has a sponsor co-driving this time and says he’s just out for the run, possibly as a warm up for ‘The Harvest’. (No connection with the young farmers who are swarming all over the Rally HQ, the West County Hotel) Noel Redmond is at 7 in his Subaru, and he’s been well on the pace of late, leads the West Coat Championship of which this is a round, so should be ‘on it’ here. Kevin Barrett at 8 has his Triton Showers backed Impreza in top fettle. Tommy Graham is at 9 in his Subaru, the Kildare man not normally seen on the Dunlop Championship events, so he is a welcome addition.

Co. Down man Michael Curran is at 10 and drives the first of the GpN cars. The GpN battle recently has been pretty frenetic, and this time will probably be no different. Behind Michael is Colm Murphy in his Impreza, using this event as a warm-up for Cork ‘20’. At 12 is Alan Ring in his Impreza, No.15 is current Dunlop GpN Champion Willie Fannin. At 16, 17 & 18 are James O’Sullivan, Aaron MacHale and Eamonn Daly all in Group N Lancers.  Sandwiched in between the Group N machinery is Maurice Gass in his fabulous Fabia WRC, running at No.14.  Ruan’s Anthony O’Halloran is at 21 and he heads an interesting line up of 2 wheel drive machinery.  If Anthony isn’t fastest on stage 2, which runs past his house, there will be questions asked, although fellow Ruan man Mick Moloney could be right there as well in his Escort.

Changes to entry include: Sean Mullally is co-driving Tommy Graham. Ger Loughrey is with Colm Murphy. Killian Duffy with Aaron MacHale and Mark Kane with Darragh Raftery in a Civic.  Brian Duggan with Eddie Donaghy at 59.  Martin Doherty is driving an Impreza WRC P2000 for the first time and Damien Finnerhan has hired the ex Barrable Impreza WRC P2000.

A further point of interest is that Denis Cronin is doing ‘00’ duties in his fabulous BMW M3, Denis saying the car is such fun, and so enjoyable, to drive compared to his Impreza WRC. Finally for now we would like to wish the Event Secretary, Grainne McInerny a very Happy Birthday – she is 24 today!

More news after stage 1: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON  www.rallynews.net