RALLY NEWS NO.1
Tralee/Saturday evening
Dunlop National Champion Niall Maguire heads a fabulous line
up for this 2nd round of the 2005 Championship here in
Tralee. Monaghan man Niall has it all to do here in Kerry, having
retired his Subaru on the first round in Mayo, when the exhaust
manifold split. The man of the moment in Mayo was Macclesfield’s Jim
Harrison. He made a fantastic start then and went on to score
maximum points. No doubt the other top drivers will have taken note,
and will do their utmost to keep him on a tighter rein this time!
Extra pressure on Niall Maguire this weekend is that his
usual co-driver Paul McLaughlin is absent through a family
bereavement. Paul Nagle was to have co-driven for Donie O’Sullivan,
but he is non-starting so Paul is sitting in with Niall. Paul isn’t
exactly local, but he’s not far off, so it should work well. Jim
Harrison starts at 2 in the McKinstry Subaru, 3 is gone, Daniel
Doherty is at 4. Donegal man Doherty gave rallying a bit of a miss
for a while last year, so it was a fairly sensational return in Mayo
where he ended up a fighting 2nd. Daniel reports that his
Impreza WRC has had a thorough overhaul since Mayo, and he’s raring
to go this weekend.
Kevin Lynch is at 5, the Dungiven man anxious to get his
Dunlop series campaign started after a non-finish in Mayo. Charlie
Donnelly is at 6. Charlie drives his brother Eugene’s Corolla WRC
and there were some doubts as to whether the car would be ready this
weekend after grinding to a halt on the Circuit with broken
transmission. Charlie tells us that a replacement unit was flown in
on Friday night and the car should be ready. Ray Breen, starting at
7 in his Focus WRC, turned in some electrifying times in Clare, but
brake troubles relegated him to a fighting fourth. It is not beyond
the bounds of possibility that Ray could win this! Patrick Elliott
is at 8 and he has been doing extensive testing with his Impreza WRC
to improve the handling. Noel Redmond is at 9, and not only is he a
contender on the Dunlop series, he’s leading the Top Part West Coast
Championship, of which this is round 2, so he definitely has it all
to play for. Cars 10 & 11 in the original entry, Denis Cronin and JJ
Fleming, are missing, so effectively making up the top ten is Melvyn
Evans, running with 12 on his Impreza. The Welshman was slowed in
Mayo with his Subaru seemingly not pulling. He’s discovered it was
simply not getting full throttle, that’s fixed, so we can expect
fireworks this time.
The above is just a taster of the interest in this
rally. The clocks will tell the real story of course. In the
meantime, further changes to entry from the programme list include:
Aled Davies is now co-driving Melvyn Evans. Adrian Deasy sitting in
with 023 Tiles man James O’Sullivan, his Lancer completely rebuilt
since its West Cork accident, Daragh Raftery (28) is a non starter,
as is Jack Sleator (39), Mike Quinn (43), Brendan Dennehy (53),
Robert Moran (59), Brian o’Mahony (61), Damien Finnerhan (70),
Patrick Kelly(72), John Paul Ruth(77). This does mean that many of
the reserves will get a run…Changes to co-driver include Brian
Duggan sitting with Tadgh Linehan, Jim Casey with Aidan Walsh, Sean
Duggan with Pat Price….More news after stage 1. BRIAN & LIZ
PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
