MANX TAILS NO.1 Grandstand/Douglas/Thursday afternoon..

This time last year Mark Higgins won the Manx International Rally in unique fashion by being fastest on every single one of the 23 stages. Former Manx resident Mark was driving a Focus World Rally Car. This time, in line with the new British Championship rules, he drives a GpN Production car, an Impreza N12, and his chances of winning the rally are slim, purely because he is up against the Pirelli Tarmac contenders in their World Rally Cars. Still, if the Jim Clark Rally is anything to go by, where Mark pipped Rory Galligan on a tie-break to win GpN and take maximum British series points, it promises to be a hectic battle anyway.

Overall though, realistically the door is open for an Irish driver to take Manx Rally glory this weekend. The late Bertie Fisher was so close so many times, but never managed it. One year Bertie was sitting at the edge of the awards ceremony platform, when he was runner up once again, and the late great Tony Pond came over, put his hand on his shoulder, and said, ‘Bertie, it’s not easy won!’ Never a truer word…….

This year, Derek McGarrity, reigning Tarmac Champion Eugene Donnelly, Kenny McKinstry and Eamonn Boland are just some with a real chance of outright glory. It still won’t be easy. Then there are the 2 top Welsh drivers, Gareth Jones and Melvyn Evans in their Subarus. They could go well. As well as that there’s this very impressive new boy on the block, 17 year old Norwegian Andrea Millesen. The word is that Andreas “Will drive at own pace” We will see!

McGarrity is fresh from winning the Jim Clark, he seems to have a real relaxed attitude to rallying at the moment. His driving seems to be all the better for it. He could be the man. Derek would love to win the Pirelli Tarmac series again, however, his No.1 aim here is to win the Manx and worry about the tarmac series another day! Eugene Donnelly is possibly thinking more about the Championship, but then behind the wheel Eugene has such stunning speed, no matter that his Corolla is 7 years old. McKinstry has been so close, so many times, maybe he deserves a win. But then it doesn’t work like that!

There are so many top drivers here, in World Rally Cars, GpN machines, Super 1600’s (Guy Wilks should fly in his Suzuki) and class contenders. In GpN, top British series contenders besides Mark Higgins, Rory Galligan, Jonny Milner, also include Ryan Champion and Gwyndaf Evans, along with young tigers Stuart Jones and Phillip Morrow. Then there are the top Tarmac GpN competitors such as Colm Murphy, Seamus Leonard and Roy White. All in all this should be a far from boring weekend. To add icing on the cake there’s a fabulous battle in store in the Historic section, with Jimmy McRae joining the fray in a Porsche, against Steve Smith, Adrian Kermode and Dessie Nutt also in 911s, In addition there is the Trophy Rally, the Stars event and the Combined Armed Forces Land Rovers.

Happily there are very few changes to the top end of the International list. Donna Harper is now co-driving for John Cope at No.10 while Shaun Gallagher (No.26) is a non-starter, also Eddie Donaghy (No42), as is Pat Maguire (No.59). In the Historics, Sean Tracey is not starting while Alan Courtney is driving Dessie Nutt’s Mini Cooper, not a Porsche. Back to the main rally, Derek McGarrity has a new Impreza WRC S11.

As the minutes ticked away to the start, no1 seed Eugene Donnelly settled into the seat and quietly ran his hands over the controls as snuggled down into the seat. He took time out to tell us, “I’m very upbeat, looking forward to it. I’ve done a fairly intense recce, feel that as this is my 3rd year here now, Its a great help having been here before. The weather looks dry, so it’s the same for everyone. In the wet its more technical, makes it more of a level playing field for me against the newer cars. Our only worry is that we are down a man in the team, John on the computers, he’s hurt his back, so that’s a bit of a problem.”

More news after stage 2: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net