DOUBLE SUCCESS FOR RANDLES AND LYNCH

Posted: May 15, 2002 6:13 PM

The Rally of the Lakes was back on the sporting calendar following its foot-and-mouth enforced absence last year, and huge crowds flocked to Killarney to welcome its return.  Tom and Diarmuid were the highest seeded crew in a Mark 2 Ford Escort, the Advanced Bio-Tech/Dyno-Rod car running at number 25.  Their arrival at Molls Gap during the opening stage on Saturday morning  was met with great enthusiasm by the spectators.  "We could hear the cheering above the noise of the engine, there must have been 4,000 people there," said Tom afterwards.

Tom and Diarmuid held second in class throughout Day One, despite inflicting some damage to the rear of the Escort on the Kilgobnet stage.  "The back went out wide on one particular bend, where there were bushes at the edge of the road.  There was a stump of a tree concealed by the bushes, and we just caught it.  We were lucky that it missed the rear wheel, as it was there was only bodywork damage," described Tom.

  The T&D Rallying crew held second in class overnight, and inherited the class lead on Sunday when fellow Killarney & District Motor Club members, Denis Cronin and Helen O'Sullivan, retired their BMW M3 with clutch problems.  Randles and Lynch then held on to claim the class honours, and they finished third overall in the National Rally of the Lakes for Modified cars, behind the Metro 6R4 of Tony Davies/Brian Hardie and the Darrian of Jon Stangle/Frank Sweeney.  The T&D Rallying Escort carried an in-car camera during the 'Lakes', recording footage for the RPM Motorsport and Rally Fever programmes, which broadcast on UTV and Sky Sports respectively.

The Carlow Rally marked the fourth round of the 2002 National Rally Championship. Tom and Diarmuid finished twelveth overall on the eight stage event.  They took second in class behind Derek Smith and Daragh Cafferky, but as the latter did not register for championship points, Randles and Lynch took the maximum score.  Tom now shares the lead of the Drivers Standings in Class 14 with David Long, who was third in Carlow.

  The T&D Rallying crew had a largely troublefree run on the Carlow event, although some of their early stage times were off their usual pace, while they experimented with tyre pressures.  "We had some new designs from our tyre suppliers, and they recommended that we run 30psi of pressure in them, but we found that it adversely affected the handling of the car", said Diarmuid.  "We reverted to our usual 27psi and found it much better," he concluded.

2002 Dunlop National Rally Championship
Class Fourteen Driver Positions 
 after 4 of 10 rounds (Provisional)
1=: TOM RANDLES, 18.
1=: David Long, 18.
3: Douglas Richardson, 17
4: Enda Keenan, 15.
5=: Pat McCafferty, 8.
5=: Alan Nesbitt, 8.