| RALLY
NEWS NO.1 Kelso/Friday 16.00
This Jim Clark Rally is divided into many parts, International, National,
Stars, Reivers and Land Rovers. The main spotlight is probably on the
International section, which is a round of both the Tesco 99 British Championship
and the Global Group Tarmac Championship. The lynchpin to both series
is current British Rally Champion Mark Higgins and his co-driver Rory
Kennedy. They lead the Tarmac Championship, having campaigned their Pirelli
backed Subaru World Rally Car to good effect on the first three rounds.
However the rules are somewhat different on the British series and Mark
must drive a GpN production car here although still staying with Subaru.
So, Mark is basically on a tightrope trying to score maximum British points
and as manyTarmac points as he can. Eugene Donnelly is his closest Tarmac
c/ship pursuer but is 14 points in arrears. However Eugene is driving
the more potent World Rally Car, and this is the only round of the Tarmac
c/ship that he hasn’t won, so he will be going maximum! One saving
grace for Mark is that some of his principal Irish opposition, such as
Kevin Lynch, Kris Meeke and the MacHales, aren’t here this weekend.
It’s still going to be an interesting scenario, and of course the
top drivers from the two different camps won’t be doing a lot to
make things easy for Mark!
Starting from Kelso town square, it will be Eugene Donnelly and his co-driver
Paul Kiely in their Reid Motorsport Subaru Impreza WRCS12 who lead the
multi-coloured Jim Clark cavalcade away with other top Tarmac contenders,
Eamonn Boland in his Focus WRC and Tim McNulty in his Pierse backed Subaru
at 2 & 3. Next up are the four main British Championship contenders,
Guy Wilks (No.5) the first round winner in his Lancer, then Mark Higgins
(No.6), followed by Gwyndaf Evans (No.7) and David Higgins (No8). Mark
drives an Impreza, Gwyndaf a Lancer and David Higgins one of the new Toyota
S2000R machines.
Behind that leading group is a further selection of World Rally Cars,
with drivers such as Jon Ingram and Barry Johnson sure to be on the pace.
The top Tarmac GpN contenders such as Colm Murphy, Roy White, James Cullen,
Connor McCloskey and Kevin O’Donoghue, are seeded towards the back
of the top twenty, and it is going to be interesting to see if they can
get on the pace of the top British GpN contenders. Last year on the Jim
Clark, when it became mandatory for the British Championship drivers to
use Tesco 99 octane in their GpN cars, it was thought that the Irish Group
N crews with the freedom to choose their own fuel would have the edge.
It turned out not to be the case, the British guys were unstoppable!
Further down the entry list are many and varied entries who will be competing
for all sorts of classes. Interestingly, there are four diesel cars due
to start in the main field, including Simon Hughes in a new Astra RallyD.
Simon has local lady Claire Mole co-driving and the new car has very professional
preparation by Triple Eight, which will give the team every chance of
a successful run. Darren Gass switches from his Super 1600 Fiesta to a
Citroen C2. The young Ulsterman runs in the same class as the two ‘works’
Suzukis of James Wozencroft and Lorna Smith. The Suzukis aren’t
highly modified in the way the C2 is, but they are brilliant little cars
and hopefully will be there at the finish. There are lots of C2R2’s
in the line-up, and at least one Honda in the hands of young Finnish driver
Vesa Mikkola.
Some changes to the International published entry list include –
last year’s winning co-driver Diarmuid Falvey to sit with Tim McNulty.
Kevin Lynch has withdrawn because of shortage of time due to his business.
Stephen Murphy has withdrawn, as has Seamus Leonard. James O’Brien,
3 times the winning co-driver here on the Jim Clark with Andrew Nesbitt,
is now co-driving for Gareth Jones. George Cullen has Neil Ewing on the
pace notes. Further withdrawals include Howard Clarke (No.28): Rob Gill
who was to be at No.37 has pulled out because his wife is expecting a
baby, and Jamie Hickman was to be at No.44 in his C2R2 but is non-starting.
Matt Beebe has now got Gareth Roberts co-driving.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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