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| Tyrone Stages |
| RALLY NEWS No.1 - Glenavon Hotel - Saturday @ 10:52:07 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.1 Glenavon Hotel Cookstown/Saturday
A packed entry is on the cards for today’s Cookstown Club Tyrone Stages rally, round 5 of the McGrady Insurance NI Rally Championship. POC NI (Oils) have stepped in as the welcome overall sponsors of the rally, which will consist of a three stage loop of asphalt stages, the loop traversed twice, with service in between. In the absence of Derek McGarrity, who has apparently sold his Impreza WRC, former National Champion and recent winner of the Cavan Rally Peadar Hurson will start first on the road, although he keeps the No.2 on the sides of his Subaru. Peadar has the experienced Damien Connolly from Monaghan co-driving. Behind the Hurson Subaru WRC there is a great mix of cars and drivers, including some particularly talented young drivers in their ‘R2’ cars. There are also a few non-starters as well as re-seeds, which should keep the timekeepers and the results people on their toes.
Heading the points in the GpN section of the NI Championships is Simon Woodside and he starts 3rd on the road in his Gp N Lancer, with two of his Championship rivals, Geoff McMahon and Clive Kilpatrick, also in Lancers, in front and behind. McMahon carries the number 3, Woodside 4 and Clive Kilpatrick at 5. Next up is the first of the Escort drivers, in the shape of Camillus Bradley, and his Ford carries the number 7, but is fifth on the road. There are many really quick men in Escorts dotted through the entry, and just a few who spring to mind include Frank Kelly at 11, David Armstrong at 12 and Alastair Cochrane at 16. Seamus O’Connell and Stanley Orr in Historic Escorts will not be hanging about either. Shane McGirr in his Starlet rwd could throw a cat amongst the pigeons for the Escorts. Shane`s regular co driver Jackie Elliott has a sore throat and Aaron Johnston is stepping in for the day.
Such is the quantity, quality and variety of the entry that is not feasible to make a form prognosis here, but it should certainly be an interesting rally, over challenging stages. One particularly interesting section of the entry should be in class 4, featuring the young drivers of the R2 cars battling for the very special prize of an all expenses paid drive on the WRC Rally GB, which is funded by David Greer’s Carryduff Forklift business. Killarney man Rob Duggan currently leads the points in this section, with Alan Smyth and Jon Armstrong in close attendance. Jon Armstrong won the category on the last round, the Magherafelt Club’s Sperrins Rally. Duggan was disappointed on that one to be a couple of seconds off the pace. So, Rob, who is currently working in Germany, has swapped his Fiesta R2 for a Peugeot 208 R2 in an effort to find that little edge to equal the score. A very young driver, William Creighton, has just finished his exams and he is joining the R2 fray. William, who won the NI and British Junior 1000 titles last year, is another who is driving a Peugeot.
Principal non-starters besides NI Championship points leader Derek McGarrity, include No.8 seed Kieron Graffin and Jonny Leonard (No.10). Callum Devine, who was to have driven his Opel Adam and who led the R2 category on the Sperrins until he retired, has pulled out of the rally.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON & MICHAEL & ZOE PATTERSON www.rallynews.net *Follow RallyNews on Twitter & Facebook @Pacenotes or @Real_RallyNews
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