RALLY NEWS NO.1 Middleton Park
Hotel/Saturday evening
So far this season, after 3 rounds of the McCauley Trailers
Championship, we’ve had some intriguing battles at the top with
Gareth MacHale holding the upper hand, Glenn Allen and John McCarthy
snapping at his heels, all three driving Toyota Corolla WRCs. For
this 4th round the equation alters somewhat with current
champion Kevin Lynch returning to the fray in his Subaru Impreza WRC.
Kevin won this rally last year and he looks pretty determined to do
it again!
Kevin has done virtually no forest rallying this year,
mostly all tarmac. He flew down from his Dungiven base on Friday
night and spent most of today in the Spa here at the Middleton Park
Hotel, having his injured back massaged. Nothing seems to stop this
man, so Glenn Allen, Gareth MacHale and John McCarthy, to name just
3, will have their work cut out to beat him.
Gareth MacHale leads the forestry championship with 60
points, Glenn Allen has 52, Pat Norris 48, John McCarthy 47 and
Group N leader Stephen Moore, 43. When it was suggested to young
Gareth MacHale that maybe he would be better concentrating on points
instead of prizes this weekend, forget about trying to chalk up a 4th
outright victory, he allegedly replied. “Points are for drinking at
the bar!” Glenn Allen is seeded right behind Lynch, and every time
he appears in his recently acquired Corolla WRC he seems to be ever
more competitive, so he could spring a surprise this weekend. John
McCarthy at 4 reports that he couldn’t quite believe on the last
round of the series in Wicklow that his Corolla wasn’t faster. He
has discovered since that the actuator bar to the turbo wasn’t quite
right, This has now been fixed, has transformed the car and he is
hoping for a big result here on his home rally. Kevin O’Kane at 5
has all the credentials to also be right on the pace, as does Pat
Norris in his newly acquired Impreza WRC.
Dominic McNeill, Dermot Kelly, James Murphy and Trevor
Harding make up the top 10. So far all looks good for these four.
John McKeown is at 11 in his Escort Cosworth. John told us that all
his cars over the years have been derived from other people’s ‘cast
offs’. He has built this one himself new, it has got all the
whistles and bells including Reiger suspension and he loves it!
Stephen Moore is at 12 in his Group N Impreza. Stephen has had a
change of co-driver, Sean Moriarty replacing Tony McHugh. The
latter’s 18 year old daughter Sinead is unfortunately ill in
hospital.
Pete Willoughby at 14 is driving the ex Aaron MacHale Lancer
Evo8. Pete is another on home ground and if he gets a decent run
should be very quick. Eddie Garry is at 15, Eddie driving an
Impreza WRC instead of his normal Group N Subaru. 16 is Johnny
McKenna who is sure to be right on the Group N pace. At 17 is Sean
Devine, Sean swapping his Impreza WRC for a Group N example for this
weekend. Kieran Shaw at 18 is non starting. Donegal man Brendan
Kelly took a sudden notion last week to do this rally. His Lancer
was at David Greer Motorsport in Carryduff, minus 2 doors and with a
damaged roof. The Greer mechanical maestros had to pull out all the
stops to get the car here. Patrick Elliott rounds off the top 20 in
his GpN Lancer.
Just outside that top 20 we have the quickest of the
Mk2 Escort men headed by Brian Lawlor at 21 and then Frank Kelly at
22. Brian was 7th overall in Wicklow which gives some
indication of the speed the Mk2 drivers! Brian McGillen, Richie
Curran and Andy Mackaral then make up the top 25, but really there
are competitive drivers throughout the field making it a very strong
entry indeed. A change to the published entry list is that Adrian
Deasy is now with Dermot Kelly. Having said that, as we type Dermot
is not yet through scrutineering. So we can’t say categorically
that he is starting, and indeed there will almost certainly be
changes to the entry before the 09.00 Sunday start. More news after
stage 1. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
