Killarney Historic Rally - 5 Dec 04

Posted: March 10, 2005 1:02 PM

The 2004 Killarney Historic Stages Rally has been granted the accolade of Stage Rally of the Year at the International Historic Motorsport Awards. The Awards were presented last weekend at a Charity Dinner at Kenilworth, Warwickshire, to coincide with the Second International Historic Motorsport Show, held at nearby Stoneleigh Park. Tim Clifford, Clerk of the Course for the Killarney Historic Stages Rally accepted the Award on behalf of Killarney & District Motor Club. It was presented to him by former British Open and Irish Tarmac Rally Champion, Russell Brookes.

Speaking after the presentation, Mr. Clifford said "I am delighted to accept this award on behalf of Killarney and District Motor Club. This is a great honour for the Killarney Historic Stages Rally and historic rallying in Ireland generally. I would like to thank the competitors who nominated us for this award and the judging panel for selecting us. I also wish to thank all those who helped to organise and run the 2004 Killarney Historic Stages Rally, it is they who have won this award."

The other events shortlisted for the International Stage Rally of the Year Award were the Rallye Elba Storico (Italy); the Robin Hood Stages (Great Britain); the Roger Albert Clark Rally (Great Britain); the Trackrod Rally (Great Britain) and the Trofeo Florio (Italy).

All profits from the charity awards dinner were donated to the Motorsport Safety Fund, the Motor & Allied Trades Benevolent Fund and the Historic Vehicle Research Institute.

Killarney & District Motor Club is organising an informal get together to celebrate the fact that the 2004 Killarney Historic Stages Rally has received the International Stage Rally of the Year Award. Celebrations will take place in the Dromhall Hotel, Killarney on Saturday 12th March at 8.30pm, and all are welcome to attend.

The Killarney Historic Stages Rally stand at the Second International Historic Motorsport Show received a steady stream of visitors over the three days of the exhibition. As well as providing details of the 2005 event to the attendance, representatives from Killarney & District Motor Club also issued general tourist information literature on behalf of Failte Ireland. The 2005 International Historic Motorsport Show recorded an attendance of 20,882 people.

The stand was sponsored by Killarney 250; The Dromhall Hotel; Failte Ireland; South West Travel; B&F Select Concrete Products; Cranford Stone and AVC Hire, suppliers of Audio Visual Equipment.

Jimmy McRae, Post-Historic category winner of the Killarney Historic Stages Rally last December, visited the Killarney & District Motor Club stand at the International Historic Motorsport Show in Coventry. Left to right: John Dando, Pat O'Connor, Tim Clifford, Jimmy McRae and Pat Healy.
Photo: Mike Johnson.

Event Website - www.killarneyhistoricrally.com

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27/02/05
The 2004 Killarney Historic Stages Rally was awarded stage rally of the year last night by the International Historic Motorsport Awards judging panel

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12/02/05
Killarney Historic Rally Shortlisted for Motorsport Award
The 2004 Killarney Historic Stages Rally has been shortlisted for the prestigious title of Stage Rally of the Year by the International Historic Motorsport Awards judging panel. The organisers of the rally, Killarney & District Motor Club, has been informed this week that the event is one of five being considered for the award, the winner of which will be announced at a Charity Dinner which will take place at Kenilworth, Warwickshire on Saturday, February 26th.

"We are very pleased that some of those who took part in the Killarney Historic Stages Rally in December have seen fit to nominate it for the Stage Rally of the Year Award", said Tim Clifford, Clerk of the Course. "It is more satisfying again to know that we have made the shortlist, and I think this reflects our efforts in putting on an event that competitors enjoy."

The 2004 Killarney Historic Stages Rally took place on December 5th, and was sponsored by Failte Ireland's Sports Tourism Initiative. The event was in fact the first ever rally to receive support from Ireland's Tourist Board. The category winners on the rally were Dessie Nutt and Geraldine McBride (Historic); Jimmy McRae and Pauline Gullick (Post-Historic) and Dessie Keenan and Enda Sherry (Classic).

The International Motorsport Awards Dinner is organised in association with the International Historic Motorsport Show, Europe's premier show for historic motorsport, which takes place at Stoneleigh Park, near Coventry, on 25th-27th February. The fourteen strong judging panel, which is independent of the International Historic Motorsport Show organisers, includes former Ford Motorsport supremo, Stuart Turner; former Chief Executive of the UK's Motor Sport Association, John Quenby and the very successful road rally navigator, Colin Francis.

* The 2005 Killarney Historic Stages Rally will take place as always on the first weekend in December. It has been included as the sixth and final round of the 023 Tiles Historic Southern Four Rally Championship. Competitors will continue to count their best four scores towards the final points classification. The full championship calendar is as follows:
Mar 19-20 West Cork Rally
Apr 31-May 1 Historic Rally of the Lakes
Jun 29 Raven's Rock Rally, Carrick-on-Suir
Oct 1-2 Historic Cork '20' Rally
Oct 30 Fastnet Rally, Skibbereen
Dec 3-4 Killarney Historic Stages Rally

Killarney & District Motor Club is currently gathering the views of past and future Killarney Historic Stages Rally entrants regarding the event.
In particular, the opinions of competitors regarding night stages and a two-day format are sought, and they are asked to contact COC:
Tim Clifford
Tel. 064 44025 (+353 64 44025) (eves.)
E-mail killarneyhistoric@oceanfree.net

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05/12/04
NUTT TAKES SIXTH KILLARNEY HISTORIC RALLY VICTORY
McRAE WINS POST-HISTORIC CATEGORY, KEENAN TAKES CLASSIC HONOURS

Photo Ray Gavin Dessie Nutt took his sixth victory on the Killarney Historic Stages Rally today, with a troublefree run in the same Porsche 911 which brought him all of his previous successes on the event. For navigator, Geraldine McBride, it was her fourth win on the rally, which was this year supported by Failte Ireland's Sports Tourism Initiative. Scotland's Jimmy McRae won the category for Post-Historic cars in another 911 Porsche, while Dessie Keenan took the honours in the Classic category in a Ford Escort.

Mist, rain and extremely slippy conditions greeted the crews on the first stage of the rally, Molls Gap, and a number of crews crashed out of the event in the opening miles. While the rain abated as the day progressed, the roads remained very wet across all nine stages of the rally. Nutt took the lead early on and was never to relinquish it, his only concern being the detail of his own pace notes on the Healy Pass stage.


Photo: James Burke English visitor Steve Smith was closest to Nutt at first, but he then lost about half a minute when he came on another competitor's accident on the Cod's Head stage. Boston-resident Galwegian, Frank Cunningham then took over second place, but Smith moved ahead again when Cunnigham struck a pole on the second run through Cod's Head in the afternon. Cunningham's Mini sustained minor damage following that incident, but he was then to crash his out of the event entirely on the next stage over The Healy Pass. Smith eventually emerged as runner-up, with Mervyn Johnston taking third place. The Killarney & District Motor Club crew of Jimmy Devane and Eddie Cronin upheld local honour in eighth place, a repeat of their result on this event last year.

Jimmy McRae took a dominant victory in the Post-Historic category, eventually winning by over four minutes in his Remax Properties supported Porsche 911, as many of his rivals fell off the road or encountered mechanical problems. "The weather's been a bit dodgy, but it has been a very good rally", said McRae.


Photo: James Burke Behind McRae, the leaderboard changed constantly, as various drivers came to the fore only to encounter problems. Twice former Post-Historic category winner, John Farrell, crashed heavily on the first run through Cod's Head. Graham Samuel, on his first visit to Killarney, occupied second place for a time, but went off the road on the Healy Pass. Another of the visiting drivers, Chris Browne, was on course to take the runner-up spot, only to pick up a puncture soon after starting the penultimate stage - he had no option but to stop and change it, and lost four minutes. He recovered to finish sixth.

Killarney's Todd Falvey and his Millstreet-based co-driver, Dan Barry, took no chances and eventually claimed second place in the Post-Historics in another Porsche 911. Kevin Flanagan, a former winner of the category on this event as a navigator, drove his Mini into third place.

The Classic section saw the local crew of Dave Slattery and Ger Somers hold the lead initially, but Dessie Keenan moved in front after stage two, and displayed remarkable pace throughout the day in his Ford Escort RS. The 2004 Irish Tarmac Group N champion, reverting to rear wheel drive having spent the year in a four wheel drive Mitsubishi, built up a considerable lead as the rally progressed, and the cushion to his nearest rivals was to prove very useful when the Monaghan driver had to stop and replace a broken fan belt on the second last stage. The margin to the chasing pack was large enough to ensure that he remained in the lead despite the delay, and he made sure of victory with another fastest time on the final stage.
Photo: James Burke

Pre-event favourite and defending Classic title holder, John Moynihan, crashed out of the rally on the opening stage, while clutch failure accounted for Kieran O'Neill (another former winner) and Mike Moloney. Martin Freestone, in his first year contesting the Classic section having previously won the Post-Historics, also went out with accident damage. Dave Slattery maintained second place to the finish, the difference to Keenan at the finish only eleven seconds following the latter's late dramas. Pat Donegan took third place in the Classics, and was follwed home by fellow Escort drivers, Pat Bonar, Liam Wall and James Coleman. Last year's Classic runner-up, Killarney man Kevin O'Donoghue, was hampered by a loose gearlever and finished down the order.

The 2004 Killarney Historic Stages Rally is organised and promoted by Killarney & District Motor Club, and sponsored by Failte Ireland; Randles Hotels, Killarney & West Cork; EPS Environmental Products Division; McAuliffe Developments; O'Leary's Expert Electrical, Killarney; Moriarty's Londis, Farranfore and Killarney Crystal.

HISTORIC STAGES RALLY: 
1 Dessie Nutt/Geraldine McBride (Porsche 911) 1h 38m 19s
2 Steve Smith/Phil Spurge (Porsche 911) 1h 39m 16s
3 Mervyn Johnston/Richard Hyland (Mini Cooper S) 1h 41m 20s
4 Mark L’Anson/Graham Walker (Porsche 911) 1h 44m 32s
5 Les Allfrey/Kevin Devine (Mini Cooper S) 1h 45m 18s
6 John Golden/Gary McElhinney (Mini Cooper S) 1h 48m 31s. 

Class winners: 
Jimmy Devane/Eddie Cronin (Mini Cooper S)
Les Allfrey/Kevin Devine
Chris Green/Hilary Green (Lotus Cortina)
Gerald Byrne/Stevie Busa (Escort)
Mark L’Anson/Graham Walker. 

POST-HISTORIC RALLY: 
1 Jimmy McRae/Pauline Gullick (Porsche 911) 1h 35m 12s
2 Todd Falvey/Dan Barry (Porsche 911) 1h 39m 33s
3 Kevin Flanagan/Adrian Parry (Mini Cooper S) 1h 40m 11s
4 Joe Connolly/Gareth Connolly (Escort) 1h 41m 02s
5 Craig MacWilliam/John O’Reilly (Escort) 1h 41m 05s
6 Chris Browne/Ali Cornwell (Escort) 1h 41m 23s. 

Class winners: 
Vicente Frontina/Derek Power (Mini Cooper S)
Simon Evans/Barry Faul (Mini Cooper S)
Joe Connolly/Gareth Connolly. 

CLASSIC RALLY: 
1 Dessie Keenan/Enda Sherry (Escort) 1h 32m 45s
2 Dave Slattery/Ger Somers (Escort) 1h 32m 56s
3 Pat Donegan/Damien Garvey (Escort) 1h 33m 32s
4 Pat Bonar/Derek Montgomery (Escort) 1h 34m 13s
5 Liam Wall/Denis O’Mahony (Escort) 1h 34m 28s
6 James Coleman/Eoin O’Neill (Escort) 1h 34m 38s. 

Class winners: 
Paudie O’Callaghan/Padraig Dineen (Starlet)
Cyril Wharton/Paul O’Shea (Escort)
Pat Bonar/Derek Montgomery,
Noel O’Sullivan/Nicholas Burke (Escort)
Kevin Kelleher/Martin Kelliher (Escort)
Liam Wall/Denis O’Mahony
Mike Quinn/Sean Enright (Escort). 

Full Results and Stage Times in Excel format

• Rallynews by Brian & Liz Patterson
• Results - rally.connect.ie
• James Burke Photography - www.jamesburkee.com
• Irish Rally Photos (Pam.Lukeman)
• Event Website - www.killarneyhistoricrally.com
  
  E-mail the organisers killarneyhistoric@oceanfree.net