RALLY NEWS NO.1 Raheen Woods/Sunday 08.30

This weekend’s rally promises many different battles, and almost certainly the one at the very top, between Patrick Elliott and Niall Maguire in their respective Subarus will be more frenetic than most. These two have been head to head throughout this long season of Dunlop National Championship rallies, and although separated by just two points before this Athenry based Galway Summer event, when dropped and maximum scores are taken into account, Elliott has the advantage. There have been scant seconds splitting the two through the various rally stages, and today it could be just as hectic.

Patrick Elliott’s Impreza WRC S12b is state of the art, and Niall Maguire’s Impreza S11 is reckoned to be as good a model as any Subaru have produced. One extra factor today is that Elliott’s usual co-driver Paul Goodman is away at his brother Barry’s wedding, and Damien Connolly has stepped into the breach to co-drive for Patrick for the first time. No doubt Damien will be more than up to the job. The stages that Clerk of the Course Victor Farrell has picked, around the Headford area, will be tough and exciting for the drivers, with many potential pitfalls waiting to punish an ambitious moment.

Into this mix comes Welshman Melvyn Evans, also in a Subaru WRC S11. Melvyn, with Sean Mullally co-driving, is well capable of upsetting the odds at the top. Evans, who has won the Manx National and Epynt Rallies this year, is a past winner of the West Cork, and is really looking forward to matching his pace on this rally with Elliott & Maguire. He knows they will be absolutely flat out. Indeed, Patrick did a fairly extensive test with his Impreza on Friday, to squeeze that little bit more out of it through the slow speed corners, where the car had a tendency to push the nose, scrubbing off speed.

Behind the top three is the leading group N Lancer of Alan Ring who starts at No.6, with Eamonn Daly at No.7 in a similar Lancer. These two are vying at the top of the Group N points table and there are several more driers who are not a mile away in the group N points, including Sean Flanagan, Danny McBride and Trevor Bustard, all in Lancers. At numbers 8 and 9 are the two leading two wheel drive cars of Trevor Mulligan in his Escort and Maurice Moffett in his Starlet. As ever there are lots of really quick drivers in Escorts including Martin McGee, Mike Quinn and Eugene Ferry who all will run in the top 20. Martin McGee has a change of co-driver Damien Crawford now calling the notes.

A few further changes to the top end of the entry include PJ McDermott (No.4), stuck in London on business and unable to make it back home in time. Sean Gallagher (No.5) is short of some parts for his Impreza and is not starting. Eoin Doyle (12), Willie Fannin (15), Anthony O’Halloran (21) and Ray Hilliard (29) all non-starting. Mark Sheahan (20) has withdrawn his entry as his Renault Clio S1600 is having an engine rebuild.

Mark Sheahan’s withdrawal means that Ian Roche is now the highest seeded class 6 driver, Ian and Paul’s Clio Super 1600 just having had it’s engine rebuilt. They run behind Liam Egan at 64, Liam again having made the trip all the way from New York City to compete here on this Galway event. Daragh and Dean Raftery come in from the reserves, keep no148 on their Subaru WRC, but should start around tenth on the road, between Martin McGee and Danny McBride. Many more reserves have moved into the main entry.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net

© 2008www.rallynews.net (Patterson Agencies). All rights reserved. Unauthorised duplication is a violation of applicable laws.

Contact Us : RallyNews Archive : Links : Calendar : Irish Notes : Patterson Pacenotes