Quality Hotels West Cork Rally 2010 Final Report
Introduction
The
32nd Quality Hotels West Cork Rally took place this past weekend
the 20th & 21st March. A full entry of 151 crews were led
away by last years winners Liam McCarthy & Kieran Murphy
in their Toyota Corolla WRC. Behind them a number of drivers
lined up to take their crown, with the most potent threat coming
from Tim McNulty & Paul Kiely in their Subaru Impreza WRC.
McNulty was using this as a testing exercise before the Circuit
of Ireland at Easter and was the pre event favourite. Also in
the hunt were previous winners Michael Barrable & Denis
Cronin, while J.J.Fleming, Hugh Hunter and Daragh O'Riordan
also in WRCs were also capable of showing well. John Dalton
from Wales was back in his 2.5 litre Darrian T90 GTR looking
to continue his amazing record of being top modified car on
the event every year since 2005.
Day
1
After
the overnight rain had cleared, Saturday dawned bright and sunny,
with the roads being mainly dry. There were some slippery patches
on the first stage at Ballinascarthy, but it was no problem
to Tim McNulty who took an early two second lead from Cronin,
with last years winner McCarthy just four seconds off the lead
in third. First to hit trouble were the number 6 seeds Hugh
Hunter & Andy Marchbank who had a puncture and lost almost
two minutes. They failed to start stage two due to mechanical
problems caused by the flat tyre. Also destined for a short
event were Conor Curley who broke a steering arm and Gwyn Thomas
who had ECU problems in his Puma. Niall Guinevan also retired
his Impreza at the end of the first stage with engine maladies.
Denis
Cronin set a blistering time on stage 2, which gave him a 10
second lead from McNulty. McCarthy, Dalton and Kevin Kelleher
made up the top five. Kelleher had lost a few seconds on the
opening stage as he caught the ailing Focus of Hunter. Daragh
O'Riordan was still settling in as he had never driven his new
car until the night before but was still setting very good times.
Michael Barrable was on his first outing since Wexford 2009
and was a little off the pace and then suffered a puncture losing
almost a minute. Scottish visitor Billy McLelland was impressing
in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3, despite never having done an
Irish tarmac rally before and was in the top 10. Neil Williams
who had been one of the favourites for class 13 retired in service
after stage 2 when a persistent misfire couldn't be cured. Brian
Lawlor was another retirement when his back axle failed.
McNulty
took fastest on stage 3 but it wasn't enough to wrest the lead
from Cronin while McCarthy dropped back a little but held onto
third place. Behind them Dalton held fourth and O'Riordan was
fifth. Kevin Kelleher and Brian O'Mahony were both stopped on
stage 3 and lost three and four minutes respectively. Kelleher
had front differential problems and O'Mahony had problems with
a tyre coming off the rim after hitting a rock. A repeat of
Clogagh was stage 4 and brought the crews into service at the
halfway point of the day. Two front runners who would be going
no further though were Liam McCarthy and Michael Barrable. McCarthy
was off the road and a timber post got jammed between the arch
and the wheel causing a long delay. They made it back to service
but too much time was lost and they decided to retire. Barrable
was also in bother as a wheel rim split down the middle which
lost him a mountain of time and he also decided to withdraw.
The
battle at the top resumed on stage 5, the classic Ring test,
but by the end of the stage, the fight appeared over. Denis
Cronin had driveshaft problems which meant he only had three
wheel drive over stages 5 & 6, and a minute was lost to
McNulty. Cronin was now under threat from Dalton behind. Dalton
set a stunning time to be fastest on Ring, but Cronin managed
to get a reasonable time on stage 6 Dunworley which according
to Dalton didn't suit his car. Local crew Jason McSweeney and
Ruth Guest had a big accident in their Civic towards the end
of Dunworley, fortunately without injury to either crew. J.J.
Fleming damaged the front of his Impreza when he hit a bank
dropping 90 second and costing him a place in the top 5. Billy
McLelland lost 7th place overall when he hit a solid West Cork
bank at the end of Ring and his rally was over due to a lot
of frontal damage.
As
the cars tackled the last pair of stages for the day, things
had settled down a little at the top end. It was a day of extraordinarily
high attrition with only 85 cars making it to parc ferme at
the end of day 1. McNulty still led the way by a comfortable
margin of just over a minute from Cronin with Dalton just under
50 seconds behind him. Daragh O'Riordan and Sean Flanagan made
up the top 5. Washington James was holding a solid sixth place
in his Darrian while Bob Fowden and Ed O'Callaghan were also
showing well. Drive of the day came from Damien McCarthy seeded
at 36 in his 1600cc Honda Civic who had climbed to 9th overall.
Ed Murphy led the Historic Rally in his Mk 1 Escort. The Honda
Cup saw all six registered drivers that started fail to finish
day 1, with the result that nobody has any points going into
the second round!
Top
5 at the end of Day 1
1
- Tim McNulty / Paul Kiely Impreza WRC 1:14:26.6
2 - Denis Cronin / Helen O'Sullivan Impreza WRC 1:15:28.5
3 - John Dalton / Gwynfor Jones Darrian T90 GTR 1:16:16.6
4 - Daragh O'Riordan / Tony McDaid Impreza WRC 1:18:29.3
5 - Sean Flanagan / Liam Brennan Impreza Gp N 1:19:59.4
Day
2
The
second day dawned bright and sunny as the previous day although
there had been some heavy rain in the early hours of the morning.
This meant that the first pair of stages at Rossmore and Sams
Cross were extremely slippery and tricky. McNulty had a slight
spin early in the stage but it didn't prevent him from setting
another fastest time. Cronin was trying hard but was hindered
by a water leak due to engine problems. John Dalton was safe
in third place and wasn't attempting to throw it all away by
trying to get in a race with the op 2. Washington James had
a spin which cost him some time and allowed Bob Fowden to strengthen
his hold on his top six placing. Kevin Kelleher had been 14th
overnight but was forced to retire when an oil leak developed
when the car left parc ferme. J.J. Fleming also retired due
to damage caused by his stage 6 excursion on day 1.
Brian
O'Mahony was setting decent times to move his way back into
the top ten, while Adrian Hetherington was also in the top ten
as he recovered from what was a slow first day by his standards.
The repeat of the Rossmore / Sams Cross loop saw Cronin and
McNulty take one fastest time each. Ed O'Callaghan leading class
13 in 7th place but Thomas Davies was now in the top ten and
challenging the Limerick driver hard as his speed increased.
Hetherington was off the road on stage 12 and as a result lost
4 minutes between getting back on the road and dealing with
the resultant puncture. Despite the rally heading to its final
quarter on the Ardfield peninsula, there was no sign of a let
up in the pace. Denis Cronin was still having difficulties with
his water leak and also had a damaged rear on the car as he
spun to scrub off speed at a junction. This gave McNulty a cushion
of two minutes and he was looking very comfortable. Differential
problems cost Sean Flanagan fifth place as he began to drop
down the order, while Bob Fowden only inherited fifth for a
short time as a blown turbo put him out on stage 13. Another
top ten runner to disappear was Thomas Davies as he hit a chicane
bale on Ardfield and the damage was too heavy for him to continue.
The
last pair of stages saw no changes to the top five as drivers
settled for their positions. Dalton and O'Riordan were safe
in their respective 3rd and 4th positions. Dalton won the Bones
O'Connor modified trophy for the 4th consecutive time. Differential
problems continued to plague Sean Flanagan and saw him finish
13th and 2nd in Gp N which was a disappointment having held
a top ten place all through the event until near the end.
Kevin
O'Donoghue was a also a late retirement with gearbox problems.
Washington James took advantage of the problems around him and
finished fifth overall. Ed O'Callaghan took sixth and class
13, while Damien McCarthy took 7th overall and won class 11.
Brian O'Mahony recovered well from his early problems to take
8th and win class 6, while Leonard Downey was 9th. John Buttimer
took 10th in his Impreza and also won class 15. The Historic
Rally was won by Denis and Dan Moynihan after a great battle
with Ed Murphy / Johnny Hickey. Jason & James Frahill won
the Juniors in their Honda Civic, while the Civic of Jason Ryan
& Tadhg O'Sullivan won the Sunday Run. It was a very successful
event which was expertly controlled by Clerk of the Course Darren
McCarthy. Tim McNultys name goes on the event roll of honour
for the first time and he's promised to come back to try and
win it again next year!
Top 5 Overall
1
- Tim McNulty / Paul Kiely Impreza WRC 2:12:38.4
2 - Denis Cronin / Helen O'Sullivan Impreza WRC 2:14:39.5
3 - John Dalton / Gwynfor Jones Darrian T90 GTR 2:15:57.4
4 - Daragh O'Riordan / Tony McDaid Impreza WRC 2:18:04.3
5 - Washington James / Llinos Davies Darrian T90 GTR 2:22:18.1
Kevin
O'Driscoll
Press & Media Officer
