RALLY NEWS NO.1                Athenry –  Sunday morning…08.00

 

Including this one, there are three rounds left of the Dunlop National Championship, and this Galway Summer Rally could well prove to be critical. Ray Breen in his Focus WRC has been on the crest of a wave recently, leads the points and on the surface looks to be unstoppable. If the Championship is to go down to the wire, one of his three closest pursuers, Jim Harrison in the McKinstry Impreza WRC, Charlie Donnelly in his ‘family’ Corolla WRC or Kevin Barrett in his Triton Showers Impreza WRC, needs to be doing some winning. What with dropped scores and so on, the situation isn’t as clear cut that Breen is now completely running away with the series, but as we have already stated, one of those other three needs a maximum score to keep their hopes alive.

 

Jim Harrison’s co-driver Harvey Bell, who provides much of their rally backing through Man Direct/ Financial, reckons that Jim for one ‘is up for it’. The amiable Harvey commented, “We really like the stages, reckon they will reward bravery, and we are really going to go for it.” 

 

Charlie Donnelly said. ‘The Corolla is good, no problem. I know we’ve been a bit slow off the mark on a couple of the rallies recently. After a couple of stages then we can certainly get on the pace, and I think we can win one. It is my full intention to win this one.’  Kevin Barrett told us, “I’ve had the Subaru re-painted and well checked over since Lurgan Park, it’s all looking good.”

 

Besides the main Championship contenders, there are many drivers who can impress to-day. Eamonn Boland is at 4, driving JJ Fleming’s Focus WRC, while JJ himself is at 9 in Eamonn’s Subaru Impreza WRC S9. Eamonn has only had a short run in the Focus, and was fairly non-committal about the car. Certainly it is a completely different gear change from the Impreza and may take a bit of getting used to. JJ hasn’t driven an Impreza in anger since last year, so he’ll maybe take a mile or two to settle. Noel Redmond is at 6 and he’s certainly been pulling his finger out recently. Current Champion Niall Maguire is at 8, and he’s gradually building up his confidence and his speed after a couple of earlier misfortunes.

 

Non-starters from the top 10 include Patrick Elliott, who has not yet recovered from his shingles attack, and Sean Gallagher who hasn’t got over his unfortunate Stonethrowers accident. Just outside the top ten is West Cork winner Denis Cronin in his Subaru. Denis has been playing about with the differentials on his Impreza WRC and is quietly hoping for rain today, so that he can try the car in damp conditions in readiness for the Cork 20. 

 

Hugh Martin Doherty is at 12 and making somewhat of a comeback.  At 14, 15, 16 and 17 we have the first 4 Group N contenders spearheaded by young Michael Curran in his Lancer, with Alan Ring, Willie Fannin and Ian Barrett in close attendance. Co.Down man Curran currently leads the Dunlop points in Group N while Willie Fannin is the reigning Champion. If past performance is anything to go by there will be fireworks between these 4, and indeed a few other Group N men as well, including Eamonn Daly, Peter Clifford and Graham Quinn. 

 

Local man Daragh Rafferty is at 18 in his Impreza WRC and could well make an impression on the leaderboard, while Jack Sleator is seeded at 20 and is now finding some real speed with his Skoda Fabia WRC.  Paul Dempsey was entered in group N but Lackagh Quarries man Paul is now driving his father John’s Group A Subaru Impreza.  New York based Galway man Liam Egan is down at 81 in one of the Donnelly Corolla WRCs.  Liam has never driven on a tarmac rally, as he campaigns a group N Lancer on the gravel stages in the USA.  Liam and co driver Sean Moriarty hope to get seeded further up the order before the start. 

 

Most of the classes will be hotly contested on the rally, none more so than class 14 where Martin Ward and Sean Lyons are the top 2 seeds. Martin is leading his class in the Dunlop series and is making a strong bid to try and win the Mickey Farrell Award.  Martin’s co driver Linda Conroy is jogging from Loughrea to the start here in Athenry as a warm up for the New York Marathon, all in aid of the CROI fund. 

 

Some changes to entry include Martin Brady co driving for Graham Quinn. Keefe Kilcoyne is sitting with David McNulty. Mark Kane is with Daragh Rafferty, Conor Waters with Jack Sleator. Keith Sheppard with Paul Dempsey. Sean Duggan with Pat Price.  Finally for now, although the start is here in Athenry, the main service area is of course at Loughrea.  One crew, Martin McGee & Damien Crawford, took a break from their reconnaissance yesterday to have a coffee in the town. To their amazement two large Indian elephants walked down the main street.  Apparently there is a Russian circus visiting Loughrea, and this was part of a promotion, so there will be two circuses in town today!

 

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