| RALLY
NEWS NO.1 Sligo Park/Sunday morning
Fittingly, this 25th anniversary of the Sligo Stages Rally has brought
a great entry in both quality and numerically, and once again the Sligo
Park Hotel is playing host to a great weekend. Aaron MacHale in his Focus
WRC will lead the cars away, Aaron well on course now for the Dunlop National
Championship, particularly as three of his main rivals, Patrick Elliott,
Michael Barrable and Glenn Allen, are missing the rally for various reasons.
That is not to say that Aaron is assured of victory here. His main priority
in any case will almost certainly be Dunlop points, and we could well
have somebody like Charlie Donnelly, Sean Devine, or P.J McDermott, the
latter in from the reserves, on the podium come Sunday night. Aaron tested
his Focus last Tuesday night at Tom Gahan’s and says it seems fine.
He reckons the stages here in Sligo are very difficult and like everyone
else will be keeping a careful eye on the weather. At the Sligo Park Hotel
last night Aaron and his co driver Killian Duffy had two fabulous Waterford
crystal awards and Aaron said. “No, we haven’t won the rally
already, these are for winning Ravans Rock”. (The results were only
made final during the week when Michael Barrable withdrew his appeal.
As well as the Dunlop series, the rally is also a round of the MSA Asphalt
Rally Championship which brings a few new faces, the top seeds being David
Kynaston in his fabulous Audi A3 Quattro, and the evergreen John Price
in his Metro 6R4. On top of that the event is a counter in the class based
McEree Border series, with class 5 leader Andrew Lang (Fiesta) looking
like the man to beat at the moment.
Charlie Donnelly took a step back from rallying when he clinched the Dunlop
Championship at the end of last year, and has had only one rally outing
this year, on his home Sperrins event, which he won. So he hasn’t
lost the magic then, and at a test session on Tuesday night of this week,
he put his Sligo Pallets backed Corolla through its paces, and also got
into the way of Herbie Blackburn calling the notes. Charlie pronounced
himself, as well as the car, in good form for the rally! He runs with
No.5 on the Corolla, while at 6 is Sean Devine in his Subaru. Donemana
man Sean has Glenn Allen’s usual co-driver Damien Connolly on the
notes this time. This will keep Damien’s hopes alive in the co-driver
section of the Dunlop Championship.
Hugh Martin Doherty was to be at 7, but the Donegal man can’t make
it here. Niall Maguire is at No.8 and is currently 2nd in the Dunlop series.
Sean Gallagher at 9 and David James at 10 make up ‘the top lot’.
Enda Sherry is sitting with Sean Gallagher and Enda actually leads the
co-drivers category in the Dunlop series. PJ McDermott, with Sean Harris
co-driving, will have No.172 on his Subaru, however will almost certainly
start somewhere in the top ten.
Top Englishman David Kynaston, all the way from Devon, is at 11, while
John Price in his Metro 6R4 is at 12. Kynaston is the current MSA Asphalt
Champion, Price is a former multiple Champion, while current points leader
Steve Simpson from Manchester is seeded at 22 in his Hyundai Accent WRC,
so there is plenty to play for there.
In the GpN category of the rally, Michael Curran is the top seed in his
Lancer. Michael starts at No 14, while Kevin Kelleher, also in a Lancer,
is at 16 and Willie Fannin in his GpN Impreza is at 17. Seamus Leonard
has been having a massive GpN battle with Curran this season, but Seamus,
who was to be at 15 here, is missing the rally, which opens the door for
Curran to consolidate his position. Also missing from GpN is Alan Ring,
but top drivers who could give the favourites a hard time include Frank
Wray and Ian Barrett.
Dark horses in GpN could include Donegal man Danny McBride, seeded down
at 37, or local man Paul Kiely, at 38. Interestingly, Paul, the Tarmac
Champion co-driver, and a first class driver in his own right, has opened
a new Motorsport shop out at the main Collooney roundabout, beside scrutineering.
The hotly contested rear wheel drive section is likely to be just as competitive
as for overall honours, and Rodney Wilton, Gary McPhillips, Anthony O’Halloran
and Wesley Patterson are the top seeds. (Three Escorts and a Manta –
sounds like the title of a thriller). Sandwiched in between the Fords
and the Opel is Brian O’Mahony in his super little Clio. Cork man
Brian going great guns this year and has chalked up a succession of class
wins as well as top twenty places.
Some further changes to the entry include Paddy Robinson sitting with
Willie Fannin, Martin Brady co-driving for Clonakilty man Kevin Kelleher
(Kevin’s brother Martin normally co-drives, but he got engaged this
week and is otherwise occupied this weekend!) Another co-driving brother
missing is Kenny Bustard. He normally sits with Trevor in their Subaru,
but Kenny has hurt his back, so Keith Kilcoyne has stepped in. Brendan
McElhinney is co-driving for Danny McBride.
Pat Kirk comes in from the reserves, and has former Production Cup World
Champion Niall McShea’s wife Noreen co-driving. Owen Murphy is another
coming in from the reserves, the Billy Coleman Award winner on his first
outing since his Jim Clark accident and hopefully he will have a good
run here. There are further changes, of which more later, and in the meantime
have a good safe 25th Sligo Stages Rally!
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net |
