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| Fastnet Stages Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.1 - Pre Start - Saturday @ 18:28:14 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.1 Skibbereen/Saturday evening.
It’s down to the wire here this weekend for both overall and class positions in the two major Championships, the Dunlop National and the Thomond Crystal Southern Four. On the Dunlop two drivers can take the overall National Champion’s title – Patrick Elliott and Niall Maguire. In the GpN it’s between Kevin Kelleher and Garry Jennings while the modified title should be between Mike Quinn and William Cavanagh. In the Thomond Crystal Southern Four series three drivers are in with a shout of taking the title – Denis Cronin, John Buttimer and Daragh O’Riordan. In addition there are lots of class battles to be resolved as well, so it should be a very interesting rally. Clerk of the Course Michael O’Riordan has laid out a very technically challenging course as well, which should prove to be a proper and fitting test of man and machine for the finale of these two important championships.
Last year’s winner Liam McCarthy was due to be first on the road this time, but his Corolla WRC engine is reportedly still in Holland getting overhauled, so it will be current National Champion Patrick Elliott, carrying No.2 on his silver Impreza WRC, who will lead the cars away. At No.3 is Niall Maguire in his slightly older model Subaru WRC. Niall, if he takes top Dunlop points, will go to 152 points meaning that Patrick has to take 3rd placed points to win the championship and back to back titles. If Niall does not win or does not take top points Patrick can win the title by finishing 4th or higher. Kevin Barrett, rejuvenated since his Galway win, runs at 4 in his Subaru and he just wants to win the rally which should be enough for him to come into 3rd o/a in the National series. As Patrick Elliott’s Australian engineer from Prodrive fine-tuned the Subaru’s anti lag valve Patrick reported. “Overall I like the stages, a mixture of roads. The big question is whether it will be wet or dry. All in all I am looking forward to the rally. It’s a matter now of keeping my nose clean”.
Denis Cronin at 5 told us that his confidence is really coming back since he got the handling and differentials sorted on his car and he could really go well here. Denis has been concentrating more this season on helping his nephew Keith, but Denis still ably demonstrated with his fine run on the Cork 20 that he has lost none of his old flair. Welshman Melvyn Evans is at 6 in his state of the art Impreza WRC S12b. Michael Barrable was to be at 7, but he hasn’t made it, so next on the road is local man Kevin Kelleher in ‘The Big Fella’ Lancer. Garry Jennings at 9 told us that he has had the chassis of his Lancer straightened after the puncture on the Donegal Harvest deranged it slightly. Rounding off the top ten is Wesley Patterson in his mighty Mk2 Escort, the first of the modified cars. Wesley is trying a new paddle gearshift system on his Escort.
That’s just a flavour of the entry on this Fastnet Rally. Brian O’Mahony is a late entry in his potent Clio S1600, and although running with 117 on his Renault, will probably start behind Daragh O’Riordan’s similar car. Brian’s father Frank, who has won this event 3 times in the past, is driving his Metro 6R4 as one of the ‘00’ cars. Ollie Williams is co-driving and the outing is part of a major fund-raising programme on behalf of Cystic Fibrosis Build4Life programme. The strong Junior section which is headed by ‘J1’ Ray O’Sullivan/Derek O’Brien in their Nova, and also the Historic section, will join in to the back of the main field on stage 4.
Just some further non-starters from the top end of the published programme entry list, besides Liam McCarthy and Michael Barrable as already mentioned, include John O’Donnell (14), Fergus O’Meara (17), Mark Nangle (19), Berrian Richards (20) & John Somers (21). Also non-starting is the talented young crew of Damien McCarthy/Eamonn Hayes, the gearbox of their Civic broken. Cork based crash repairman Liam Brennan, who was to have been with Fergus O’Meara, is now co-driving for Michael Delaney. Unfortunately Pat Price has had to withdraw at the last minute, as his sister is extremely ill.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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