Such is the wealth of driving talent, plus a veritable plethora of fabulous rally machinery, it’s difficult to know where to begin, to describe the ‘odds’ for this First Choice Flooring backed Galway International Rally. The depth and volume of the entry, along with all the peripherals, speaks volumes for the hard work put in by the Clerk of the Course John O’Connell as well as his Galway Motor Club team, for the strength of Irish rallying and the Pirelli Tarmac Championship. Indeed, since the early Seventies, Galway, the City, the countryside, has played a big part in opening the rally season, has built up its own aura of rally magic, and this year is no exception.

So, its against that background that Eugene Donnelly and his co-driver Paul Kiely, winners of last year’s Galway Rally as well as being current Tarmac Champions, will pilot their Corolla WRC away from the Eyre Square start towards Portumna for the first of the seventeen special stages. Behind Eugene Donnelly we have Tim McNulty, Derek McGarrity and Andrew Nesbitt, all in Subarus. Next up is six times Galway winner Austin MacHale, Eamonn Boland and Ray Breen in their respective Ford Focus WRC machines. Young Welshman Gareth Jones is at 9 in his Subaru, Peadar Hurson at 11 in his Impreza WRC and Maurice Gass is at 12 in a Skoda WRC. Non starters from the top ten in the published list are Kevin Lynch, who was to be at 7 and Gareth MacHale at 10. Lynch was within a whisker of making it down from his Dungiven base, but pressure of work was just too great. Gareth MacHale, following his great Monte Carlo run, is going to concentrate on Rally Mexico and Rally Ireland in the Focus, so his brother Aaron is coming in to the No.10 slot with the ‘family’ Corolla WRC. George Tracey starts behind Maurice Gass, although keeping 34 on his 206 WRC.   

Outside the top runners there is a fabulous line-up of GpN entries, with about a dozen guys capable of taking the prestigious GpN honours. Garry Jennings is the current GpN Champion and he has had his Lancer engine rebuilt during the week, following a blow-up last weekend. Colm Murphy won GpN here last year and he comes in from the reserves to run with 138 on his Impreza. Also in from the reserves is Philip Morrow (139). He will drive Brendan Kelly’s Lancer. Murphy and Morrow will start in the ‘20s. There are at least 2 of the new Impreza N12s out on the event, one to be driven by Alan Ring and one by Willie John Dolan. Reportedly these new Subarus are a big step forward from the N11. Seamus Leonard was to have a new Lancer for the event. It is not yet ready so he is using Rory Galligan’s machine from last year. Just some of the other top group N names include Roy White, John McGlaughlin, James Foley, Kevin Kelleher, former Donegal International winner James Cullen, Paul Dempsey & Kevin O’Donoghue. In parallel with the top ten scene it is impossible to forecast a winner.

In addition to the battle for overall and class honours on the International there is an interesting entry of Historic cars which will join in the rally from stage 4 onwards. Manxman Adrian Kermode, with Maurice Beckett co driving, heads the list in his Porsche 911, with Todd Falvey at No.2 and Killarney Historic winner Ray Cunningham at 3 in his Mini Cooper.  On top of all that we have the Junior Rally contenders and they run on Sunday.

Switching back to the guys at the front of the field Eugene Donnelly said before the start. “We have managed to get some more power from our Corolla. Indications are that the roads are going to be slippy and I think it is going to be a very, very competitive rally where anything could happen.”  Eugene’s comments on the slippy roads are echoed by most of the drivers. It would look as if, following the frost, there is a greasy sheen on the top of the asphalt surfaces, something that it would take a good day’s rain to clear. The forecast is for a quiet weekend’s weather, good for spectating, but the roads will stay slippy!