RALLY NEWS NO.1 Saturday morning/Dundalk
The Dundalk town centre start marks a new era for the Circuit of Ireland, this year with backing from UTV Drive and Triton Showers. Experienced rally man Bobby Willis has taken over as director of the event and has big plans for the future. This Easter’s rally is just the first step in a new process, including bidding for the IRC status. As it is, the event is a round of the Citroen Tarmac Championship, the Hankook Tyres NI Championship, the Citroen Racing Trophy for C2R2’s, the Mitsubishi Evo Challenge and the Fiesta series.
Current Tarmac Championship points leader Gareth MacHale in his Focus WRC will head the 90 strong entry away from Dundalk for the 15 special stages, including an 18 mile night stage over the tortuous country roads outside Banbridge. Gareth, who is just getting over a bout of influenza, told us that the engine of his Ford Focus has been ‘across the water’ since his Galway International victory 8 weeks ago. Hopefully an overheating worry he had on that rally will be cured. Of course it didn’t stop him winning then and it could well be the same here. Except, that is, for the 5 drivers immediately behind his Focus WRC who will also be bidding for victory.
Four of those drivers, previous Circuit winner Derek McGarrity, Tim McNulty, Gareth’s brother Aaron MacHale, and Triton Showers’ man in Ireland Kevin Barrett, all drive World Rally Cars. Then 6th in the line-up is young Craig Breen from Waterford, and he drives one of the new type of rally machines, the Fiesta Super 2000. Craig was 2nd on the Galway Tarmac opener, and if he has a really good Circuit he could make the winner’s enclosure. It’s all ifs and buts, which is the joy of rallying.
Following the snow earlier in the week, the special stages verges are sure to be soggy, and there could be a lot of mud pulled out on to the roads, making the going tricky. A dark horse on the rally could be Cork man Daragh O’Riordan at 16. He has just acquired a WRC Subaru, and clearly demonstrated on his first run, in West Cork, that he has a lot of speed. GpN cars fill the remainder of the top ten, with rising star Alastair Fisher (Lancer) at 7, Garry Jennings (Lancer) at 8, Richard Cathcart (Impreza) at 9, all three from the Fermanagh region. Killarney’s Alan Ring (Lancer) rounds off the top ten.
Highest seeded Citroen C2R2Max contender is Marty McCormack at 19. Marty is the current UK Citroen Racing Trophy Champion. His C2R2 Max was still having it’s gearbox fitted yesterday. Behind Marty is Robert Barrable, the first round winner this year in Galway. Current Irish Citroen Champion Adrian McElhinney is at 21, Shane Buckley is at 22 and Mark Donnelly, the Citroen winner on the opening British round in Wales last week, at 23.
The Mitsubishi Evo Challenge is on a ‘double header’ this weekend, and current Champion Neil McCance should lead the charge, Neil seeded at 11. However Neil won’t get it easy, there are 10 Evo’s registered and include some very good drivers indeed. The National part of the rally is headed by Kenny McKinstry in his Subaru. He’s more or less on home ground, and drivers such as Donagh Kelly in his Focus WRC, who is seeded behind Kenny, will be hard pushed indeed to match the former Champion. All in all though, it should be a fascinating weekend.
Main changes to the programme entry list include - Martin Brady co-driving for Richard Cathcart and Liam Moynihan is with Tommy Doyle. Non-starters include Numbers 39, 110, 129, 131, 145, & 146.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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