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| Kenmare Historic Stages Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.1 - Pre Start - Saturday @ 17:27:25 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.1 Brook Lane Hotel Kenmare/Saturday night
Special stage names such as Liberty Hall, Roughty River and Sheen River evoke long ago memories of famous Irish rallying names such as Billy Coleman, Ger Buckley, Paddy Hopkirk and a lot more. It is fitting therefore that the event, following a one year break, should move South and be re-branded the Kenmare Historic Rally, offering the drivers and co-drivers the opportunity to tackle some of the finest and most challenging roads in the country. The rally may not have a numerically huge entry with 75 entries, but it certainly has quality and the event is shaping up to be another classic. Certainly the people and businesses, especially the Book Lane Hotel, in this beautiful little town of Kenmare have taken the rally to their hearts and there is a great ambience in the town.
The first crew on the road will be Ray and Elaine Cunningham, with former Historic Champion Mervyn Johnston, also in a Cooper S and with Wendy Blackledge co-driving, running at 2. Behind the Fermanagh crew is Killarney’s Mike O’Leary also in a Mini Cooper S. Mike has Farranfore Centra supermarket supremo Mike Moriarity co-driving. Then at 4 is former Historic Champion Phillip Wylie in his MGB with John Young co-driving. At 5 is newly crowned Historic Champion Niall Creighton with Gregory Roberts aboard his Lotus Cortina. Niall has a fresh engine in his Ford. Ian Chadwick rounds off the top six Historics and there are approximately 15 Historic cars starting.
The rally is divided into four main categories. The Historics run first on the road then it is the Post Historics, followed by Classics, and then it will be the fastest cars, the Modifieds, running behind. At the head of each section are a couple of ‘00’ cars. Top seed in the Post Historic section is Ed Murphy, his Escort running with No.17 on the door pates. Behind Murphy its visiting UK crew Sean Lockyear/David Kempley in their Porsche 911. Third on the road in the Post Historics, (No.19 on the car) is Denis & Dan Moynihan in their Escort. They will be battling with Ray Hilliard/Senan Raggett in a similar Mk1 Escort for the top spot in the Thomond Crystal Southern Four Historic Rally Championship. Fourth on the road in the Post Historics is Thomas Mason then Ed Gibbons in his Avenger and next up is Martin Ward in his old model Manta. Martin’s co-driver, Linda Conroy, is just back from having finished her 3rd New York marathon. Just one of the late entries in the Post Historics is Frank O’Mahony/John Higgins in Frank’s Mini Cooper. Then it’s the turn of the ‘Classics’, with Glenflesk man Diarmuid Lynch and his co-driver Mark Horgan in their Escort top seed at 42 with Michael Feeney/Paul McGinnis next up in their Mk1 VW Golf. There is only a handful of Classics doing the rally.
Bringing up the rear are the fastest cars, the Modifieds. Fergus O’Meara (No.47) will lead the Modified category in his Mk2 Escort and will face tough opposition from the likes of Kevin O’Donoghue, John O’Donnell, late entries Mike Quinn and Barry Meade, plus a whole lot more, all in Mk 2 Escorts. The first non Escort in the Modified list is Lloyd Hutchinson in his very special 1440cc 16 valve Mini. Wicklow man Lloyd may not win the Modifieds, but he is more than capable of giving some of the Escort boys a fair run for their money! No doubt there will be plenty more stories before this Kenmare Historic Rally traverses what could be 7 very wet stages! More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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