RallyNews No.5                    Hillgrove Hotel Finish Control Sunday  5.45pm

 

Unofficial Leaderboard After Stage Nine (Finish)

 

1^st (9) Dessie Keenan/Enda Sherry (Impreza WRC) 1.06.45

2^nd (10) Michael Barrable/Dermot O’Gorman (Focus WRC) 1.07.20

3^rd (5) Glenn Allen/Damien Connolly (Corolla WRC) 1.07.27

4^th (1) Patrick Elliott/Paul Goodman (Impreza S11) 1.07.45

5^th (8) Niall Maguire/Paul McLaughlin (Impreza WRC) 1.08.06

6^th (7) Kevin Barrett/Barry Goodman (Impreza WRC) 1.08.50

7^th (2) Ray Breen/Damien Morrissey (Focus WRC) 1.09.34

8^th (14) Michael Curran/Killian Duffy (Lancer N) 1.10.09

9^th (4) Noel Redmond/Ger Healy (Impreza S12) 1.10.23

10^th (18) Willie Fannin/Mark Kane (Impreza N) 1.10.46

11^th (23) Kevin Kelleher/Martin Kelleher (Lancer N) 1.11.00

12^th (20) Gary McPhillips/Mark Tierney (Escort Mk2) 1.11.01

 

The Keenan family are synonymous with the Monaghan Rally and as the 00ing Escort of Enda Keenan came to a halt at the Hillgrove Hotel finish he was the first man back to control.  Almost immediately news filtered through that Dessie Keenan and co driver Enda Sherry had completed the last stage and had won their first ever National Championship Rally.  Not only was it his first major win, more impressively it was the first time that the young local driver had ever driven a WRC machine and the McKinstry machine was as faultless as Keenan’s driving as their 35 second victory bears testament.  As the whole family congratulated the winning crew Dessie took time out to tell us “it hasn’t quite sunk in yet, I loved the car, I thought when I saw the stages that they were very difficult and then when it was raining this morning I couldn’t take it in, but as the day went on I did start to push especially over the final loop when it dried a little”.  Dessie carried on at length about how good the car was but when all is said and done it was a pretty stunning performance from the former tarmac group N champion.

 

Behind the rally leader it was all happening for second place.  Michael Barrable had speeded up to such an extent that by the final stage he and early rally leader Glenn Allen were almost neck and neck but Barrable pulled out all the stops taking eight seconds on the final test to secure maximum Dunlop championship points with second overall.  Also scoring well today was Niall Maguire who brought his Impreza home in fifth while Patrick Elliott eventually got a good haul of Dunlop points with fourth today despite his earlier puncture.  Ray Breen and Noel Redmond both punctured on stage seven both dropping down the order as a result.  Aaron McaHale’s retirement earlier has been confirmed as timing belt failure. 

 

Michael Curran once again dominated the group N class while Willie Fannin put in an equally strong performance to take second from Kevin Kelleher who sneaked past Seamus Leonard over the final couple of stages.  Gary McPhillips was the talk of the stages as he threw his rapid Mk2 round the Monaghan lanes and he wins the 2wd category from Rodney Wilton but these times are very provisional.

 

Finally for now well done to COC Brendan McCrudden and his team headed by Cora Maguire who have once again ran an almost faultless Monaghan Stages Rally.  Many thanks also to those who have supported this year’s RallyNews service.  Michael Patterson & Zoe Todd