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Brendan Kelly Rallying - From a High to an All Time Low

Posted: October 23, 2002 3:20 PM - 11713 Hits


CORK, 27TH September 2002 saw Brendan Kelly from Ferefad, Longford and Athlone man Cathal Shanahan competing on the penultimate round of Irelands premier one make rally championship, the Ford Ireland Focus Rally Championship, which took place at the Murphy Construction Cork "20" International Rally, based in Cork City on the 5th & 6th of October last.

Brendan and Cathal were looking forward to the event following a difficult season of non-finishes and time loss due to mechanical problems. “We have had a dreadful season this year, we were running as high a third on the last round of the Championship( Clare Stages) but we incurred a penalty leaving service area late and also had to stop when we can across fellow competitors accident, all this time loss dropped us back the leader board. Bearing in mind that we set one fastest stage time and were in the top two or three all day it gives me great hope for the future as we definitely have the pace to challenge for victory" said Brendan.

Posted: October 23, 2002 3:20 PM

The Event:
Brendan Kelly in the Griffith Motor Group Ford Focus proved his earlier pace setting the fastest Focus stage time on the opening stage ahead of Colm Murphy. Murphy decided to fight back on the following stages to take an early six-second lead. Brendan who found himself happier with the car following work done in service fought back magnificently to set fastest Focus time on stages five, six and seven to reduce Murphy's lead to four seconds. However on the eight and final stage of day one Brendan overhauled Murphy to finish day one over 2 minutes ahead of his nearest Focus rival and an incredible 26th overall in an International Rally.

Day two dawned with Brendan and Cathal determined to hold their commanding lead, even though they found themselves in awe running among the larger more powerful cars which that they had beaten the previous day. BUT rallying has a cruel nature of biting back and on the first stage on Sunday Brendan and Cathal found themselves sidelined when they suffered transmission failure in their Ford Focus. Unable to comprehend, let alone comment on the disappointment, the crew loaded the car onto the trailer and headed for home wondering when lady luck was eventually going to smile on them.

Next Event:
The next event for the team is the final round of the Focus Challenge, the West International, and takes place on Saturday 8th November.The event which is based in both the Quality Hotel in Clarenbridge (Headquarters) and the Quality Hotel in Oranmore will see crews from the Focus Challenge along with the Tarmac regulars compete over eight stages based around a centralised off-road service area in north County Galway followed by four stages in darkness before a 7.30pm finish. In total five separate stages are being used in a rolling loop format giving a total stage mileage of 110 approximately over the twelve stages

Sponsors:
As always Brendan and Cathal are grateful to the help of their sponsors who include :
Griffiths Ford Dealers Mullingar
Static Vision Specialists
Tullamore Court Hotel
Irish Metal Refineries
Crossan Electrical Longford
Luigis Fast Food
IPT Ltd
Tubbercurry Engineering
Edward J Valentines Bar and Lounge
Barry Express
Longford Tiles and Bathrooms
Riverside Design Furniture Portarlington
Signs N Systems Ballinasloe

Topics: Ford Focus Championship 

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