Rally News No.1                                Grants Hotel Roscrea Sunday 9am

Ray Breen heads the field away from the Grants Hotel start this morning and the reigning Dunlop National Champion should be the pace setter today.  Along with co driver Andrew Purcell and driving their usual pristine Keltec backed Ford Focus the Waterford pairing will be looking to repeat their 2005 win on this Birr & District Stages Rally.  Last year was Breen’s first ever major rally win and as such started a chain of events that saw the pair go on and have a super successful year culminating in their National rally title.  Breen’s main opposition today will almost certainly come from either Martin Doherty, Aaron McHale or local man Tommy Graham.  

Withdrawals from the top ten include Patrick Elliott, Kevin Barrett, Noel Redmond, John Spain and local man Jack Sleator all of whom had various difficulties getting cars ready.  David James will start seventh on the road in his recently acquired 2002 specification Focus WRC, and with the experienced Derek Brannigan on the notes it will be very interesting to see how the former Escort supremo adapts to 4wd world rally car technology.  Aaron McHale is another driver making the step up to the WRC league and drives brother Gareth’s forestry championship winning Corolla for the second time today after debuting in the car a couple of weeks ago in Galway and could pose a real threat for a podium finish today.  Donegal’s Martin Doherty could be a dark horse if Lady Luck smiles on him today and another one looking for a slice of good luck will be Tommy Graham.  Partnered with Anthony Nester, Tommy had a strong run here last year until mechanical misfortunes intervened. 

The GpN battle could be one of the main talking points today and former National GpN Champion Willie Fannin should be the pace setter.  Such is the pace of the leading GpN guys now one of them could spring a surprise overall result on the fast flowing stages that make up the bulk of today’s mileage.  Ian Barrett showed an impressive turn of speed here last year in his Triton backed Lancer and a season in the National Championship has matured the young Maynooth driver into a leading GpN contender.  Other GpN notables include Adrian Quinn, James Stafford and P J McGrath all of whom have a chance of a strong run today.  Christy Carey and Richard Talbot had to reluctantly withdraw their Legacy at the start earlier after working all night trying to sort out an engine problem.    

The Birr and District Stages Rally today kicks off a couple of hugely popular regional championships.  The big local series is the Sleator Opel Midland East Championship and despite series sponsor Jack Sleator being unable to take the start the class based five round series is well supported in the region.  Also kicking off today is the Top Part West Coast Championship, today the first of six rounds finishing with the Banna Beach based Kerry Single Stage in November.  The Rory Galligan backed Peugeot 205 Challenge One Make series also starts today with some seriously quick drivers battling it out for the 500 Euro prize money up for grabs today.  Today’s rally is also being observed by Motorsport Ireland for possible inclusion in the Dunlop National Championship and certainly today’s stages are worthy adversaries and we wish COC Bill Ryan and his team the best of luck with today’s event.

More News Later Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd