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RALLYNEWS
NO.1
Clonakilty/Saturday morning early
Welshman Melvyn Evans in his Subaru Impreza WRC heads a strong entry
on this St Patrick’s weekend West Cork Rally. Whether the
warm side of the stone turns up or not, the competition, and the
rally fever, should still be red hot. The rally has once again attracted
the real cream of drivers and rally cars. Any of the top drivers
could scoop the honours here - Tim McNulty, Donie O’Sullivan,
Liam McCarthy, Denis Cronin, Michael Barrable, Jon Ingram. All drive
World Rally cars, all have the pedigree to go for the golden prize
of a West Cork win.
Melvyn’s Subaru suffered slight damage when it skidded off
the road on the recent Epynt rally. That has all been repaired and
he is looking forward to the rally, despite being a little unwell
after suffering from food poisoning. Melvyn and his co-driver Sean
Mullally won this West Cork Rally 12 months ago, and went on from
there to win the 023 Tiles Championship. The pair would be more
than happy to do it all over again! Tim McNulty on the other
hand is a bit of a West Cork novice. However with Cork ‘20’
and Killarney Lakes wins under his belt, Tim shouldn’t be
fazed here. His big aim is to clock up some miles in his Subaru
prior to the next round of the Tarmac series, the UAC Easter International.
Donie O’Sullivan at 4 is another who hasn’t been doing
a lot of rally miles recently. Donie is to drive Kenny McKinstry’s
new Impreza WRC S11, and it may take him a few miles to get going,
but then he will surely be on the pace. In a test session, Donie
clicked on to the new car straight away, just wanted a bigger seat
fitted.
Liam McCarthy at 5 is to the drive the Eugene Donnelly/Prodrive
Impreza WRC S12, arguably the best car in the rally. Again, it will
almost certainly take him a few miles to get going. At a test session
yesterday he quickly found confidence in his new car, even though
the ‘anti-lag’ wasn’t working properly and the
suspension is still on the ‘wet’ set-up from Galway.
Denis Cronin at 6 has had his Subaru totally refettled at Dom Buckley’s,
and his car is reportedly ‘flying’. Denis will be anxious
to assuage the memory of last year’s first stage retirement.
Michael Barrable at 7 is pleased with the way his Focus WRC is performing.
Michael always goes well on these fast flowing West Cork stages.
Cross-channel visitor Jon Ingram is at 8 in his Subaru WRC. Jon
has been doing some testing work in the Subaru, finding the car
totally different from his Focus WRC. John Dalton rounds off the
top ten, the Welshman the front runner in the two wheel drive division
with his powerful Darrian. John will be driving with a broken bone
in his leg, but reckons it should be no problem. With or without
that left leg strapped up, John will be hard pushed to improve on
his 3rd place here last year. Other top two wheel contenders include
Gwyndaf Evans and Wesley Patterson in their Escorts, both co-incidentally
recovering from some health problems. There are stacks more exciting
drivers in Escorts of course, and the ‘Mk2’ brigade
is a big feature of the rally. There is a special award this year
– the Bones o’Connor Trophy – and all the Mk2’s,
as well as Dalton, Tom Randles in his big Celica and many others
are eligible for that.
There is a big entry in the GPN production category. Local men Kevin
and Martin Kelleher won the category last year in their ‘Big
Fella’ Lancer, and they will surely be the GpN category yardstick
this time around. Just some of the other top GpN drivers include
Billy Coleman Award winner Owen Murphy, 023 Tiles man James O’Sullivan,
who is driving Kevin O’Donoghue’s yellow Evo 8, Mark
Nangle and Willie John Dolan (Impreza N12B)
Non-starters from the top end of the entry list include Kevin Lynch
(No3), JJ Fleming (No9), Phil Collins (No11), Noel Redmond (No15),
PJ McGrath (No17) and Tadgh Linehan (No20). Further non-starters
include Thomas Fitzmaurice (34), Brian Armstrong (46), P.J.McDermott
(50) and David Parle (63). Co-driver changes include Sorcha Kelly
sitting in with John Hickey in the ‘Fubaru’, Pat Cashman
with Tom Randles and Damien McGettigan with Brian Brogan. Philip
Cross (77) switches from and Escort Mk2 to Thomas Fitzmaurice’s
Escort Cosworth. More news later. BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON
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