Quality Hotels West Cork Rally 2010 Press Release 3
The
countdown is well and truly on for the Quality Hotels West Cork
Rally which takes place next weekend, March 20th & 21st.
A full entry has been received plus some reserves which is very
pleasing to Cork Motor Club who promote the event. With 16 special
stages and over 200km of stage miles, it will be a tough rally.
151 cars are allowed to start the main event on Saturday morning,
and these will be led away by top seed and 2009 winners Liam
McCarthy & Kieran Murphy in their Toyota Corolla WRC. Liam
had been trying for many years to win his home rally and finally
reached the top of the podium last year. Now that the duck has
been broken, he'll be out to try to become the first driver
since John Price in 1993 to take back to back wins on the event.
To
do this however, he will have to deal with the challenges presented
by a strong field behind him. Tim McNulty & Paul Kiely start
at 2 in their Subaru Impreza WRC. Tim will be hoping to improve
on his runner-up slot here three years ago, as well as getting
valuable testing done before the Circuit of Ireland in two weeks
time. If all runs smoothly he should be favourite to win the
event. John Dalton & Gwynfor Jones are at three in the amazingly
quick Darrian T90 GTR. John has been the top modified driver
on the event since 2005, and after being runner up overall for
the past two years will take some beating. If the weather is
dry he will challenge the WRCs, however the Darrian is a handful
in the wet.
Denis
Cronin the current Southern 4 champion and 2005 West Cork winner
is at 4 in his older model Subaru Impreza WRC. He will be hoping
to carry on his good run in the south west having won the Fastnet
Rally last October. Helen O'Sullivan will be back in the co-drivers
seat having missed the Fastnet win. Michael Barrable & Dermot
O'Gorman are at five in a Focus WRC. This crew haven't done
the event since beating Tim McNulty in a close finish in 2007,
but should be up there challenging for overall honours over
the weekend. Hugh Hunter & Andy Marchbank are at 6 in another
Focus WRC. Hugh was only in West Cork once before, in 1995.
That year he retired having held a strong top ten spot in a
Sierra Cosworth until well into the second day.
Current
National Gp N Champion and former Tarmac Gp N Champion Kevin
Kelleher is at seven co-driven by his brother Martin. They haven't
done the event since 2007, but should be strong favourites to
take Gp N here in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9. They are the
highest seeded Clonakilty crew in the rally. J.J. Fleming &
Robbie Ward are at eight in a Subaru Impreza WRC and will be
hoping for better luck than in 2008 when they slid off the road
early in the event. Generally though, J.J. has had a good record
in the event over the years with some strong top six finishes.
Brian
O'Mahony & John Higgins are at 9 in their Renault Clio S1600.
Brian was out of luck last year when his car developed engine
problems on the way to scrutiny, and as a result he had to withdraw.
Brian has always been quick on West Cork and the more potent
machinery around him won't faze him. Rounding off the top ten
is Daragh O'Riordan & Tony McDaid from Midleton who have
made the transition from Renault Clio to Subaru Impreza WRC.
It will be a steep learning curve for Daragh, but he has done
the event a few times and this should help him get used to the
car. If he adapts quickly he could easily improve on his 7th
overall here last year.
Outside
of the top ten there are drivers of the quality of Bob Fowden
(the only driver to win the event three times), Eoin Doyle,
Sean Flanagan, Billy McLelland, Adrian Hetherington and Washington
James. Other drivers that could feature heavily on the modified
side of things are Ed O'Callaghan, Conor Curley, Neil Williams
and Des Moore. Class 11 looks to be the most competitive of
all, with some very fast local drivers augmented by the Honda
Cup registered drivers. This is by far the most popular class
in terms of numbers. Damien McCarthy, David Guest and Jason
Ryan will be favourites here, but such is the strength of the
class other drivers could well feature by Sunday evening.
The
Historics will begin their rally on stage 5, led by Denis Moynihans
Escort, followed by Todd Falvey and Rikki Proffitts Porsche
911s. Ed Murphy & Martin Sheahans Escorts should also be
in the hunt. The Juniors Rally will consist of the final four
stages of the event, and the top three seeds here are David
Fleming, Billy McCarthy & Andrew Lehane.
Another
attraction this year is the return of Slowly Sideways Ireland.
Nostalgic Group B and Group 4 cars will be on display here during
the event in the shape of a Manta 400, Renault 5 Turbo, Fiat
131 etc. Two cars that will create special interest are the
fire breathing Audi Quattro S1 driven by Dermott Simpson, and
the Vauxhall Chevette HSR of Andrew & Alan Bushe. The Chevette
is the original car as driven by Jimmy McRae on his way to 2nd
place on the West Cork Rally in 1980 behind Billy Coleman. This
was the competition debut for the HSR and proved a successful
testing ground as Jimmy won the Circuit of Ireland in 1980.
30 years later the car will again appear on the West Cork stages
and will no doubt bring back some great memories to those lucky
enough to see it action last time around.
The
ceremonial start on Friday night 19th March will take place
at 7pm. The Slowly Sideways cars and top ten from the main rally
will parade through the town, to finish up in Deasys car park
where Dougie Hughes will introduce each driver as he passes
under the start ramp. It will be a great chance to see some
of these cars and drivers close up and should add to the atmosphere
in the town for rally weekend.
The
action begins at 10am and finishes at 4pm both days. The stages
for the weekend are as follows,
Saturday
S1&3 - Ballinascarthy
S2&4 - Clogagh
S5&7 - Ring
S6&8 - Dunworley
Sunday
S9&11 - Rossmore
S10&12 - Sams Cross
S13&15 - Ardfield
S14&16 - Hayes's Cross
Accomodation
may still be sourced by contacting the Quality Hotel on 023
8836400, (00 353 23 8836400 from the UK) or logging onto their
website at www.qualityclonakiltyhotel.com.
For more rally details please log onto www.corkmotorclub.com
or www.westcorkrally.com.
Kevin
O'Driscoll
Press & Media Officer
