RALLY
NEWS NO.1 Rally HQ Galway – Friday evening
Twelve
months ago John O’Connell, the Clerk of the Course, brought the
rally back into Galway City, got his brother Ger and his First
Choice Flooring concern in as sponsors, attracted a brilliant entry
which launched the Pirelli Tarmac Championship in style. Here we are
one year on, there’s even more class to the rally, but most of all
so brilliant is the entry that there are a lot of intriguing rally
questions waiting to be answered. What a line up there is – great
drivers and a fabulous selection of World Rally Cars, as well as the
latest GpN machinery.
Austin
MacHale is due to lead the field away, his Focus WRC now converted
to RHD. Forget stories about MacHale having damaged the car in
testing earlier this week. Austin is a six times Galway
International winner, and a bit of a bump won’t deter him. The
million dollar question will be, just how much quicker will he be
now the car is converted to RHD? Double British Rally Champion Jonny
Milner, running with 13 on the side of his Prospeed run Skoda
Octavia WRC starts 2nd on the road. It will not be the
first time Jonny has driven the Skoda, and he commented after he
completed his recce, “The first stage is a bit like Druidale on the
Isle of Man – I think I’m going to enjoy this!”
This may be
Jonny’s 1st Galway international, but that probably won’t
stop him throwing a cat amongst the Irish rally pigeons! Joint
Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly, winner here 2 years ago, beaten by
a fraction of a second by Tapio Laukkanen last year, starts 3rd
on the road in his Corolla WRC and the Maghera man is just bursting
to get at it, well fired up – expect fireworks!
Derek
McGarrity starts 4th, driving a Skoda Fabia WRC this time
instead of the Subaru’s that have carried him to so much success
over the last few years. Derek is more than confident in the
capability of his new Skoda, so we must wait and see….Eamonn Boland
is 5th on the road in his Impreza WRC, the car freshly
rebuilt after Monte Carlo, Eamonn happy enough. Tim McNulty is next
up, and he drives the very, very latest Subaru, an S10. Prodrive
engineer Steve Smith told us that Tim completed over 200 kms testing
earlier this week, and the car is really on it….the stage times
should be interesting…
That’s just
the top six on the road, and only scraping the surface of the
interest here in Galway. Just a few more tasters include…Kevin Lynch
tested his Subaru WRC earlier in the week and the engine blew! A
fresh unit has been whistled in ….Patrick Elliott says all is well
with him, and his Subaru, and he’s determined to play the rally cool
– thinks there could be a lot of damage done….Peadar Hurson at 8
hasn’t been out on a Tarmac round for a while, but when he does get
going he certainly doesn’t hang about. John Joe Fleming, running at
9, would be a hard man to impress, but he’s chuffed to bits with his
new Focus WRC – its RHD, its an RS15, ie., the very latest, the very
best, the first in private hands…..Following a test session out at
the Black Road, JJ says “The car’s nice, good brakes, good gearbox,
very fast” Ray Breen is at 10, he’s also got a RHD Focus WRC, the
Waterford man also very impressed with his new machine…so it goes
on…Denis Cronin at 11 in a Subaru, Maurice Gass at 14 in his Subaru,
fresh from winning Kirkistown, could be a dark horse…Gareth MacHale
and Tony Davies are also in WRC’s…phew, what a line up.
Roy White
at 17 is the first of the GpN cars – his new Lancer only arrived
from Ralliart in Germany tonight, giving Roy little chance of a
shakedown. But then it would seem to be the same situation for many
of the GpN guys, a bit last minute….but none the less interesting
for all that. There are lots more stories, but no more room here –
the real narrative begins at the end of the first stage – a tortuous
10 mile blast over the Francis Gap mountain stage – who would lay
odds on the stage times???? More News later. BRIAN & LIZ
PATTERSON
