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| The Kerry Mini Stages |
| RALLY NEWS No.1 - Banna Beach - Tuesday @ 12:58:04 |
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Fresh from the Pirelli Find a Driver Shoot-Out in Austria, West Cork man Keith Cronin in his Lancer heads a strong line-up for this Banna Beach Resort backed Kerry Mini Stages Rally. Banna, situated outside the village of Ardfert, will be the start and finish venue of what promises to be an exciting rally this weekend. The service area is in Tralee and the two fast, exciting stages, each run twice, are out towards Abbeydorney, Killflyn and Ballyduff. Behind Keith are some very ‘quick men’ and two of them, Alan Ring (Lancer), who runs at No.2 today, and Ed Synan, who is at 9 in his Escort, can also win the Top Part West Coast Rally Championship.
No Championship worries this time though for Cronin. Keith, who won this rally last year, has David Power co-driving. David won the seat in Keith’s supporter’s club draw! Keith’s Lancer has had little more than a clean-up since its Austria trip and should be in top fettle here. Similarly, Alan Ring’s Lancer has had little more than a good service since its last outing two weeks ago in Skibbereen where his finished 2nd o/a and won Group N. Alan has of course won our Rally News GpN Award on the Dunlop National Championship, and if he can win the Top Part series here, it will be his 3rd time to take the title. In reality, he has only to get his Lancer to the finish in any sort of a decent position to take the title. Synan can only stick in there, get a good finish, but will only get the title if Ring has a major problem.
West Donegal man Stuart Darcy is at 3 in his GpA Subaru Impreza. Stuart, who has Tralee’s chocolate expert Diarmuid Falvey co-driving, has had his Subaru at Kenny McKinstry’s Banbridge workshop for a service, and to get Kenny to tweak the ‘toe-in’ set-up in the front suspension. Local man Thomas Fitzmaurice of TLI Transmission Links starts at 4, and Thomas, whose rallying has been on the pace recently but frustrated by niggly problems, would dearly love to win his local rally. There is a lot of pride at stake here on this Banna Rally, and of course as Killarney Historic Rally is not happening, this is the final stage event of the year. Gives it a sort of end of season party feel!
Co. Clare man Anthony O’Halloran is at 5 in his Lancer and Cork’s Brian O’Mahony rounds off the top 6. Brian is driving his usual Renault Clio Super 1600. Mike Quinn is at 7 in the highest seeded Mk2 Escort. Sean Flanagan, who has a new Impreza ‘recce car’, runs at 8. Ed Synan is at 9 and Tim Enright tops off the top 10 in his Lancer.
There are virtually no non-starters at the top end of the list as featured in the programme. Fergus O’Meara was to be at 21 but he can’t make it and cars 30 & 31 are missing, but otherwise the top end of the entry is very solid. There are a few withdrawals further down, which gives some reserves the chance of a run. There should be a full 151 starters. A couple of changes to entry include Motorsport News man Sean Moriarty now co-driving for Donegal’s Pete Greene. John Raffters is co-driving for Shay Power. Ray Hilliard has his Lancer back on the road following its excursion into the Atlantic on the Rally of the Lakes. Ray has Senan Raggett co-driving, and on the side of the Lancer there is a ‘lifebelt on board sticker!’ Former multiple National Champion Niall Maguire’s son Shane is running at 84 in his Peugeot 206, and Niall is coming down from Monaghan to keep an eye on him. John Hickey who now drives a full group A Impreza keeps No.26 on the Subaru just runs just outside the top 10. Paul McEnroe in his new Impreza N14 keeps 37 but runs inside the top 20. Some of the other re-seeds include Dan Mulcahy, John Buttimer and Ger McDonagh.
More news later:
BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net (thanks to Angus Sealy) |
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