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| Lakeland Stages |
| RALLY NEWS No.1 - Pre start - Saturday @ 08:55:31 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.1 Fisher Engineering/Saturday morning
At the heels of the hunt, this Fisher Engineering backed Lakeland Stages Rally has ended up with a really strong interesting line-up of top cars and drivers. A few last minute entries including one from Dogleap Rally winner Sean Devine in his Subaru Impreza WRC. In addition, No1 seed and current NI Championship leader Derek McGarrity has sold his Impreza WRC and has done a deal for Glenn Allen’s Corolla WRC.
A few weeks ago Clerk of the Course George Ogle and the organising Enniskillen Motor Club thought the rally might be facing a bleak weekend, but it has all come on stream, and even the Fermanagh weather looks like being kind. Derek McGarrity has had a test session in his newly acquired Corolla WRC and although he found the gear change a bit different to his Subaru, he seemed well switched on to the Toyota. Certainly it will be a big race at the front between the top three, McGarrity, McKinstry and Devine and should be pretty special.
Having said that, the level of competition throughout the field is pretty impressive. Behind Devine is Donagh Kelly, 3rd overall in the Championship and leading GpN. Donagh has being doing plenty of testing and is taking the rally very seriously. Then its local man Raymond Johnston, also in a Lancer and 2nd in GpN, and he’s very keen for a good result on his home soil. At No.5 is one of the real dark horses in the victory race – Stevie Whitford.
The Larne man drives a very potent GpA Lancer, has won the rally before, and will be sure to give it a real go. Behind Whitford are three young drivers who are real hot rallying property – Alastair Fisher, Jonny Greer and Matthew Cathcart. Alastair is 21 years old, Jonny is 22 and Matthew is 18. They are all real rally stars in the making and the sparks could really fly on this Lakeland. Cathcart knocked the bonnet scoop off on a branch in testing yesterday, but that was a minor distraction. Enda McNulty rounds off the top ten in his GpA Lancer and he should also go well. Beyond that, there are many drivers more than capable of springing a surprise. Just some include Brian McGillin, who is at 23 in a Corolla WRC, or Errol Clarke who has bought a potent GpA Lancer from Garry Jennings. Errol has No43 on his Corolla, but will start in the top twenty. Another interesting entry is Martin Cairns in the ex Circuit of Ireland winning red Impreza WRC running at 29.
Then there is what is sure to be the mad battle of the Mk2 Escort men, with just some of the star drivers being Frank Kelly, Adrian Hetherington, Trevor Moore and Marty McCormick. Last minute Escort men to enter the fray include Vivian Hamill and Shane Cullen. One of the changes to the Escort line-up is that Paul Barrett cannot make the start, so Ryan Barrett is doing it instead, but he is driving a historic Escort and will have a number in the Eighties. There should be five Historics and they will be slotted in somewhere almost behind the top ten. Just some of the lady drivers competing include Emma McKinstry in her Subaru and Australian Molly Taylor, who drives Marty McCormack’s Citroen C2R2, Roisin Boyd in her Swift, and Samantha Thom in her Peugeot 106. The icing on this Lakeland Rally cake is that one of the most sensational crews in Irish rallying, joint leaders of the British Championship, Keith Cronin and Greg Shinnors, are doing ‘00’ duties in their Lancer.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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