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| ALMC Stages Rally |
| RALLY NEWS No.1 - Pre Start - Sunday @ 08:55:11 |
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RALLY NEWS NO.1 Sunday morning/City North
This weekend’s ALMC Stages Rally has a strong turnout of World Rally Cars, thanks mainly to the event’s inclusion in the UK based MSA Asphalt series. Michael Barrable, last year’s winner carrying No2 on his Focus WRC, will lead the field away from the City North Hotel for the 9 special stages. Dubliner Michael hasn’t been doing much rallying recently. His last outing, in West Cork, only lasted two stages, so he may have a bit of work to do getting up to full speed. Second on the road is Damien Cole, also in a Focus WRC. Cole, from Hereford, has scored maximum points on the last three MSA Asphalt Championship rounds – The Manx National, The Jim Clark National and the Midlands event at MIRA. Damien, boss of the ‘Get Connected’ phone company, reckons his Focus WRC is well prepared for this rally.
With the No1 and 4 seeds, Tim McNulty and PJ McDermott, non starting, next on the road after Cole will be John Stone in his Fabia WRC. The engine of Stone’s Skoda has been taken out before the rally so that the chassis legs, bent on a Jim Clark Rally jump, could be re-jigged. MSA Asphalt series leader John reports all now well.
At 6 is Michael O’Brien, and he has borrowed his preparation man Paul Benn’s left hand drive Focus WRC for this weekend, as the bag tank on his car gave problems on Thursday. Simon Mauger is at 8 and David Kynaston at 9 with his Audi A3 Quattro. David told us that he has had the new type oil scavenger pumps fitted to his Audi and reckons this should cure a small reliability problem he has had with the car.
Neil McCance, fresh from a holiday in Portugal, rounds off the top ten in his Lancer. Neil has won his last two rallies outright and he will certainly be hoping that he can reinforce his position at the top of the Mitsubishi Evo Challenge points table.
As well as Tim McNulty and PJ McDermott non-starting, Eugene Meegan can’t make it either as he is having some small problem with his Evo 10. Sean Mullally is now co-driving for Kenny McKinstry; Alistair Wylie is with Dave Price at 25 in a rwd Escort. Roger Donnan has Leon Jordan co-driving in his Puma S1600 and is seeded at 27 and is currently 4th in the MSA Asphalt series. Further changes to entry include: Maurice Moffett (22) and Trevor Mulligan (18) have been moved slightly up the running order. Pat Donegan (19) is a non starter as is car 28 Liam Howlett and car 30 Gordon Rogers. Just over 100 cars start the main rally. There are 7 Juniors and 2 Historics.
More news later: BRIAN & LIZ PATTERSON www.rallynews.net
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