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RALLY NEWS NO.1 Tralee/Sunday morning early….
There’s a festival feel to this Kerry Multi Stages Rally,
and such is its popularity that the reserve list is nearly as big
as the number of cars that are actually getting started. The rally
is the final round of the Top Part West Coast Championship. The
overall title has been won by Aaron McHale, so the fight is on for
runner up spot, with a string of drivers, including one of the event
sponsors, Tadgh Linehan, in the frame not just for runner-up spot,
but the GpN title. Sean Lyons, Kevin Kelleher, Eamonn Daly and Mike
Quinn are a few more who will be hoping for various Top Part honours.
Daragh Raftery was also in that Championship group but he’s
had to withdraw, a new rear screen which he ordered up for his GpN
Impreza not fitting the hole! There’s more to the rally than
Championship places of course, its as much about local honour and
kudos, a final fling before the winter rally break, or for some
a ‘warm-up or shake down’ before the Killarney Historic.
Last year’s winner here, John Kearney is going to have his
work cut out this time. Not only is there a very strong entry, but
the stages are very fast in places and could well favour the four
wheel drive turbo GpA and GpN machinery. Adrian McElvaney is at
No.2 in his Subaru and Kevin Kelleher at No.3 in his GpN Lancer
Evo. They will be just two sure to set a furious pace.
Adrian got a guided tour (by Diarmuid Falvey) of Tralee’s
night spots on Friday after he arrived, so he’s starting with
a bit of a handicap! The McElvaney GpA Subaru was all refurbished
earlier this year, and he won the North East Stages in it. Kevin
Kelleher retired his Lancer (when leading GpN) from the recent Fastnet
Rally when the ECU decided to pack the fiddle – an almost
unknown thing to happen. James Foley has been kind enough to loan
Kevin the one out of his car, so the Clonakilty men are hungry for
road again. Tadgh Linehan is at 4 in his GpN Impreza, and he’s
determined to give this a big go, his Impreza is sparkling as usual
and although his mechanic is away on holiday in America, Tadgh reckons
‘it’ll be fine!’.
James Cullen is at No.4 and he’s another who has had a last
minute drama with his Lancer. A shaft in the step off box broke
as the car was being loaded on to the trailer. Happily Kieran Graffin,
who prepares the car, was able to take one out of another Lancer,
to leave James and co-driver Reba back on course. Kevin O’Donoghue
is at 5 in his new Lancer (he has loaned his older one, the yellow
car, to Mike O’Leary/Mike Moriarty to use for ‘00ing’
) Kevin seems to have opted out of Gpn for the moment with his new
Lancer in order to run a big restrictor.
Mike Quinn, a local man from Lyreacrompane, led the rally for a
while last year until his Escort slipped off the road, so he’ll
be out to make amends this time. Abbeydorney’s Thomas Fitzmaurice
is at 9 in his Escort Cosworth. Thomas had a great run on the recent
Fastnet, finishing just on the edge of the leaderboard, so he’ll
be hoping to go even better here. Eamonn Daly rounds off the top
ten. He was out in his new Lancer in Skibbereen, went well as he
got used to the car, so he’s definitely another who should
shine.
So it goes on, there are lots of possibilities here, and many drivers
outside the top ten as well who could feature. Just some of the
changes to the bulging entry list include Johnny O’Sullivan,
who was to be at No6, non-starting as his Escort Cosworth’s
engine went wrong on the dyno. Stuart Darcy from Killybegs has some
standard parts in his Subaru’s centre diff and gearbox, after
doing damage by running different size wheels on the front from
the back on the Harvest, he’s hopeful the car will be OK,
and has Stephen Furey co-driving. Anthony O’Halloran has Larry
O’Halloran co-driving and Pat Donegan, who has been having
some work done to his Escort, to tighten the car up and strengthen
it, has Andy Donohue co-driving. Frank Sweeney, Ray Hilliard, Charlie
Hickey and Liam Davis are two more non-starters. Ken O’Neill
has Ronald Riordan co-driving in his rapid Puma and they are seeded
at No.32, but hoping to get re-seeded further up. Colm Grant back
at No.153 is driving Ken O’Neill’s old Corsa, and not
the Peugeot as listed in the programme.
Clerk of the Course Noel O’Connor is having to shuffle the
schedule a little, as their has sadly been a bereavement just off
the first stage and Noel is going to start the first stage a few
minutes early, and get the complete rally back to the Banna Beach
fairly sharpish. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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