RALLY NEWS NO.1
West County Hotel/Ennis/Sunday..early
Pressure is the name of the game for No.1 seed Charlie Donnelly
here on this Clare Stages Rally. Charlie has set himself the target
of winning the Dunlop National Championship on this penultimate
round, and although he may deny it, he’s as wound up as a
spring in a clock. The one man who can deny Charlie the title, Patrick
Elliott, is on the other hand almost philosophical about the situation.
Patrick has led the points for much of this long season, but then
was left high and dry on the most recent round in Galway. A tiny
little broken wire, about 2 cents worth, halted his state of the
art Subaru WRC. That stoppage swung the pendulum firmly in Donnelly’s
favour. His Corolla WRC has already won the Tarmac Championship
in his brother Eugene’s hands, his navigator Paddy Toner is
already the new Dunlop Champion co-driver, so it is up to Charlie
to put the last piece of the jigsaw in place.
As Patrick Elliot checked in with the girls in the rally office
for reconnaissance signing on, he shrugged his shoulders, and said
“The Championship is gone for me. To be honest I was ready
to jack the whole thing in after what happened in Galway. But we’ll
be trying for the No.1 spot here anyway.” Patrick’s
co-driver, the vastly experienced Rory Kennedy, gave him a sideways
glare when he made the comment about the Championship being gone.
Rory has been in so many similar situations, and knows better than
anybody that rallying is totally unpredictable, and never to give
up until the results are absolutely final.
These two, Donnelly and Elliott, won’t get it all their own
way in any case, in terms of winning the rally. There are plenty
of drivers to give them a hard time as regards who will be uncorking
the champagne back here in Ennis. Clerk of the Course Jim Casey
has laid on a challenging series of stages and it promises to be
a tough rally, where anything could happen. At 3 is Aaron MacHale,
the Dubliner hungry for his first National win, and always looking
capable of it. Aaron’s preparation for this event took a bit
of a knock when he went to test his Focus WRC on Friday and the
power steering broke. Still, better there than on the first stage.
Denis Cronin is at 4 in his Subaru. The West Cork man freely admits
he’s a slow starter, and sees this Clare event as a warm-up
for the Cork ‘20’. Still if Dennis does get into his
stride here, he’ll not be a mile away. Niall Maguire at 5
in his Subaru is a three times National Champion, so he can’t
be discounted, nor can Noel Redmond in his Impreza WRC S11 following
a great drive on last weekend’s Wexford event. Redmond (137)
is listed in the reserves and will run 6th on the road. Also running
with the top cars is Jack Sleator (No.135). His Subaru also comes
in from the reserves and will run between 15 and 16. John McCarthy
is non-starting, still in hospital following his Wexford accident.
Everyone’s thoughts are very much with the Carrigtwohill man.
Martin Doherty, Sean Gallagher, David McNulty and Kevin Barrett
are all in the top ten and should go well. Kevin Barrett is debuting
his new Impreza WRC S11 and it may take him a mile or two to get
into the way of his new high tech machine. When Kevin’s Triton
Showers liveried ex Solberg/McGarrity Subaru came into service it
stopped everyone in their tracks, it is just so stunning.
Just outside the top ten we have the first of the GpN contenders,
Alan Ring and Willie Fannin in their respective Impreza N12’s.
These two have been battling hammer and tongs all season for GpN
supremacy in the Dunlop National series. There’s been very
little in it, a real ding dong, and the GpN honours could go either
way. Just some of the other top GpN men include Kevin Kelleher in
his Lancer, Tadgh Linehan in a hired Impreza, Eamonn Daly and Gabriel
Martin.
James Foley had entered his Lancer, but has withdrawn following
a break-in at his house during the week.
The two wheel drive runners are spearheaded by Anthony O’Halloran
in his Manta, running at 20, with Mike Moloney at 21 and Enda Keenan
at 22 in their respective Escorts . They are just two who will be
snapping at local favourite O’Halloran’s heels, but
realistically there is a horde of top Escorts who will ‘in
there’, battling hard. Some changes to the published
entry list include: Sean Mullally co-driving for Niall Maguire,
Eugene O’Donnell for Aaron McHale, John McCafferty for Martin
Doherty, James Kinahan for Daragh Raftery. Douglas Richardson
has his son John co-driving, not daughter Paula. John Reddington
has Bernard Glackin in the hot seat. Car 23 non-starting.
More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
