Rally News
No.1 Sunday End Of Stage One 10am
Unofficial
Leaderboard After Stage One
1st (5)
Ray Breen/Andrew Purcell (Focus WRC) 10.39
2nd (1)
Niall Maguire/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 10.42
3rd (4)
Kevin Barrett/Barry Goodman (Impreza WRC) 10.47
4th
(166) Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Impreza WRC) 10.48
5th
(11) Alan Ring/Sean Moriarity (Impreza N) 10.59
6th (7)
Tommy Graham/Anthony Nestor (Impreza WRC) 11.05
7th
(13) Tadhg Linehan/John Kearney (Impreza N) 11.10
8th (18) Jack Sleator/Timmy England (Impreza N) 11.15
The above times
are very unofficial from the end of the first stage but it was first
blood to Ray Breen in his Focus WRC to finish the stage three
seconds up on Niall Maguire. Maguire had a trouble free run in his
Impreza and in a change to the entry list he has Enda Sherry co
driving today. Running second on the road with 166 on his Impreza
is Liam McCarthy, the Cork man loosing a few seconds when he
overshot the first junction. Noel Redmond never made it to the
first stage, his Impreza parked on the main N7 with the bonnet up.
Peter Clifford had his Lancer jumping out of gear and was caught by
a flying Alan Ring in the Munster Joinery GpN Impreza. Jack Sleator
had a spin in his GpN Subaru but still set a good time while Aiden
Walsh and Pat Spain set the 2wd pace both on a time of 11.34 over
the twelve mile opening test.
No doubt the
leading competitors today are treating this Laois stages rally as a
warm up for the Dunlop National Championship but with the quality of
the stages today the event would be a worthy national rally in its
own right. As it is, the rally is the opening round of both the Top
Part West Coast Rally Championship and the new Sleator MG Rover
Midland East Championship. This new series sports the backing of
GpN Impreza driver Jack Sleator’s Mullingar based MG Rover
dealership and will comprise of four events, as well as today’s
rally also included is the Midland, ALMC and the Castle Hellfire
with three out of four scores counting.
Significant non
starters from the top runners include Patrick Elliott whose Impreza
isn’t ready and J J Fleming who is in the same situation with his
Focus. Non starters in the GpN race include Gabriel Martin and
Willie Fannin, Francis Regan has jumped in with Waterford’s Eddie
Garry in their GpN Impreza and Clement Bell sits with rapid Mk2 man
Peter Rahill. Eamon McGarrity fills the co driving slot with
Michael Shaw at 36 while Hugh McKenna gets back into the hot seat
with Peter McCullough and should be worth keeping an eye on at 42 in
their Lancer. Other TBAs on the entry list now filled, include
Ronan Mooney at 62, Oliver Ward (73), David Coyne (79), Larry Hand
(82) and Brian Smullen (125).
At the back of the
field today we have the Junior rally, where the younger competitors
get a chance to fill in for the final four stages and Colin O’Toole
is first on the road in his Corsa. As part of the Top Part West
Coast Championship, a new section has now been included for the
Junior competitors where they can compete on any of the counting
multi-stage events, with the best four from six scores counting.
Just for interest to qualify for the Junior section, competitors
must be under 27 and with their car’s CC’s not exceeding 1650.
More News Later
Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd
