RALLY NEWS NO.1                  Oldcastle Service/Sunday 11.45

It may be the most beautiful morning here at Oldcastle and in the countryside around Lough Sheelin, bright sunshine, clear blue skies and a hard twinkling frost underneath.  However, for the drivers in the rally it means just one big headache.  No.1 seed Mickey Curran brought his Escort in from the familiarisation run and said. “It’s a nightmare out there, pure ice, no grip, you’d really need the gritter on the road, I don’t know if I’ll take the car out again to the first stage, I’d be afraid I’d put the front of it into the hedge”. 

The drivers behind echoed local man Curran’s thoughts, but maybe weren’t just as vociferous.  Andrew Mullan of Sligo Pallets was doing OO duties in his new Saxo and he thought it was very slippery.  Breen McNamee is driving Clerk of the Course Michelle Devereaux in a new Focus ST supplied by Jacksons Garage and Breen was of the opinion that although the first half of the stage was pretty slippy there was a fair bit of grip on the second half, and overall it wasn’t too bad. 

Donegal man Pat Bonner joked about the conditions “It will be a real Torville & Dean job on the stage!”  Most of the top drivers were treating the conditions as a straightforward challenge. 

Changes to the top of the entry list from the one in the programme included – Car No.3 non starting. Car 5 Peter Greene has Gerard Greene co driving. Ollie O’Reilly has Martin Cahill slotted in to co drive. PJ Bonner has Paddy Boyce in the hot seat. 135 Gerry Smith, with Raymond Drury co driving, has been re-seeded and will start in the top 10.

The running order at the top therefore will be: Mickey Curran at 1. Gordon Rogers at 2. Arthur Kierans at 4. Peter Greene at 5. Pat Bonner at 6. Gareth McCullough at 7. Ollie O’Reilly at 8. Gerry Smith 135. PJ Bonner (9) and James Cassidy No.10. Sean Murphy is at 11 in yet another Escort and the first non Escort is Mark Alcorn in his Corolla, running at No.12.  Mark says he is really looking forward to the slippy conditions and there is no doubt that the frost will equalise the power advantage of some of the cars.

Car 19 Conor Curley is a non starter. Stephen Brunton is co driving for Johnny Fitzsimmons.

Car 144 is to be driven by Paul McEnroe and is slotted in between 22 and 23. Car 29 Brian Doyle has Sean Doyle co driving. Cars 39, 41, 48, 50 and 51 are non starters.

An innovation on the rally this weekend is the introduction of some new awards besides the actual class awards. These new awards are for any front wheel drive car up to 1650cc and any front wheel drive car over 1651cc.  Also any rear wheel drive up to 1650 and then any rear wheel drive over 1651.

Approximately 125 cars made it through scrutineering out at the Crover House Hotel and should start the rally.

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