EASTER STAGES (UAC) - 26 Mar 05

Posted: April 3, 2005 8:54 PM

Strabane's Terry McGonigle annihilates Easter Stages Rally opposition!
The Easter Stages Rally marked the third round of the Pacenotes Northern Ireland Rally Championship and Strabane's Terry McGonigle annihilated his Group N opposition!

Driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 with Sean Harris (Letterkenny) co-driving, the event marked only the second closed road event of Terry's rally career. But Terry made it look easy as he took a start to finish Group N victory and third overall!

After a short blast around the St. Angelo stage just outside Enniskillen, crews headed to the first closed road test. McGonigle immediately took control as the O'Kane Devine Ltd sponsored driver was 11 seconds faster than his nearest class competitors! In fact, he consistently set times at least 10 seconds faster than his rivals on almost every stage throughout the event. It was a speed that would have rivaled the leading International crews and despite a spin on stage eight, he comfortably won the class by more than one minute!

Terry said: "This is the sort of result we needed, I'm very happy! We were surprised that nobody could come close to our times and luckily we had no major problems. If we hadn't spun then we might have been able to take second overall but that's rallying and I certainly can't complain about this result!"

Terry's campaign to lift the 2005 Group N title continues at round four of the N.I. Championship, the forestry based Tour of the Sperrins Rally, on Saturday 21 May. The Strabane driver it still looking for sponsors to help support his campaign - if you want to join a winning team contact Terry - e-mail: terrymcgonigle@hotmail.com

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Pos Driver/Codriver (Make) Total
1 Glenn Allen/Damien Connolly (Toyota Corolla WRC) 43:12.8
2 Raymond Johnston/Richard Bell (Subaru Impreza WRC) 43:58.3
3 Terry McGonigle/Sean Harris (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO) 44:03.3
4 Denis Biggerstaff/Damian McCann (Subaru Impreza WRC) 44:55.3
5 Dickie Curran/Gary Lyons (Subaru Impreza WRC) 45:06.0
6 Neil McCance/Sean Ferris (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO) 45:10.6
7 Eddie Quinn/Robbie Hamilton (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO) 45:49.9
8 Gary Cairns/Justin Coyle (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO) 45:51.5
9 Stephen Kelly/Ann Taggart (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO) 46:02.8
10 Alistair Cochrane/Pam Norris (Ford Escort) 46:07.6
11 Kieran O'Neill/Andrew O'Donoghue (Opel Kadett) 46:32.1
12 Drew Stewart/Steven Park (Ford Escort MK 2) 46:42.3
13 Brian Armstrong/Mark Carson (Ford Escort MK 2) 46:43.8
14 Mark Hamilton/Trevor Ferguson (Subaru Impreza) 46:59.4
15 Seamus Hegarty/Paul Gallagher (Ford Escort) 47:06.0
16 Ronan Curley/John McKinley (Ford Escort RS) 47:10.1
17 Shaun Murphy/Ross Wasson (Ford Escort) 48:02.7
18 Winston Henry/David Vance (Ford Escort MK 2) 48:03.2
19 Bernard O'Neill/Eugene O'Kane (Ford Escort MK 2) 48:10.9
20 Errol Clarke/Jason Harron (Mitsubishi Lanc) 48:11.5
21 Paul Britton/Martin McFall (Subaru Impreza) 48:19.9
22 Damian McQuaid/Conor McMahon (Talbot Sunbeam) 48:25.0
23 Christopher Boyce/Pascal Dillon (Honda Civic) 48:25.1
24 James Kennedy/James McCullough (Ford Escort MK 2) 48:27.2
25 Gerry McPolin/Rory McPolin (Ford Escort) 48:34.6
26 Adrain Hetherington/Michael Faloon (Ford Escort) 48:53.2
27 Paddy McVeigh/Aidan Campbell (Subaru Impreza) 48:58.7
28 Geoffrey Nevin/Paul Nevin (Ford Escort MK 2) 49:02.3
29 Brendan Campbell/Ciaran McAnespy (Ford Escort MK 2) 49:09.2
30 Mark Doyle/Rory Doyle (Peugeot 106 SI6) 49:28.2
31 Brian Black/Ian Crozier (Toyota Starlet) 49:35.2
32 David Kerr/Rodney Hicks (Peugeot 205 GTI) 49:47.7
33 Adrian McElhinney/Martin McMenamin (Peugeot 206) 50:02.4
34 Jeremy Taylor/Jonathan Patterson (Subaru Impreza) 50:08.4
35 Howard Clarke/Colin Harkness (Peugeot 205) 50:08.7
36 Samuel Wilson/Andrew Wilson (Renault Clio Maxi) 50:17.8
37 Frank Kelly/Jonathan Charlesson (Ford Escort) 50:21.6
38 Martin Collins/Stephen O'Neill (Ford Escort MK 2) 50:27.5
39 Andrew Simms/Andrew Knox (Ford Escort MK 2) 50:29.8
40 Ian Duff/Ian Hull (Proton Satria) 50:50.3
41 Garrett Loughran/Maurice Loughran (Vauxhall Nova) 50:51.5
42 Conor McMeel/Sean Devlin (Ford Escort) 51:06.4
43 Graham Patterson/Keith Hall (Toyota Corolla) 51:28.3
44 Aidan Curran/Liam Curran (Mitsubishi Lanc) 51:42.4
45 Dermot Hassett/Gordon Brown (Opel Corsa GSi) 51:42.9
46 Liam Brown/Martin Coyle (Ford Escort) 51:47.5
47 Mario Daly/Martin Gallogley (Vauxhall Corsa) 51:55.6
48 Alistair Glenn/Mark McMullan (Suzuki Swift) 52:30.9
49 Colin McMonagle/Garret McMonagle (Honda Integra T) 52:40.3
50 Martin Howley/Kenny Bustard (Ford Escort Cos) 53:05.5
51 Michael Carlin/Denis Durnin (Ford Escort MK 2) 54:42.3
52 Brian Hanna/Paul Forsythe (Peugeot 205 XS) 55:55.8

• For More information go to Circuit of Ireland Article
  2005 Circuit of Ireland - 26-28 Mar 05

www.ulsterautomobileclub.co.uk

Photos:
James Burke
rallypics.org
NG Motorsport Images

• 2005 Northern Ireland Rally Championship

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PRE EVENT NEWS

Run on the Saturday Stages of the Circuit of Ireland

• Top 20 Entires
• Regulations and Entry Form are now available

The top three cars in the Meteor Electrical Easter Stages Rally are driven by Kieran Shaw, Glenn Allen and Denis Biggerstaff.

However, with Cahal Arthurs in his Hyundai Accent WRC at number 4, followed by Raymond Johnston in an Impreza and Craig Bennett in the Focus WRC, it will be interesting to see who will be quickest over the stages on Easter Saturday. Mind you, with Dickie Curran and Neil McCance elsewhere in the top 15, you can guarantee that it will be a closely fought battle.

Comp No Driver/Co Driver (Car)
301 Kieran/Crawford Henderson (Mitsubishi Lancer WRC)
302 Glenn/Damien Connolly (Ford Escort WRC)
303 Denis/Damian McCann (Subaru Impreza WRC)
304 Cahal/Martin Brady (Hyundai Accent WRC)
305 Raymond/Richard Bell (Subaru Impreza WRC)
306 Craig/Rodger Bennett (Ford Focus WRC)
308 David/ TBA (Subaru Impreza WRC)
309 Dickie/Gary Lyons (Subaru Impreza WRC)
310 Gary/Richard Curry (Ford Escort RS Cosworth)
311 Martin/Brian Crawford (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6)
312 John/David McElroy (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 7)
313 Terry/ TBA (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 8)
314 Stephen/Stephen Griffith (Subaru Impreza N10)
315 Neil/ TBA (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 8.5 MR)
316 Eoin/Donard McCann (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 7)
317 Gary/Justin Coyle (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6)
318 Alan/Rodney Wallace (Ford Escort G3)
319 Eddie/Robbie Hamilton (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 5)
320 Gary/David Meeke (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 6)
321 Alistair/Pam Norris (Ford Escort)

• For More information go to Circuit of Ireland Article
  2005 Circuit of Ireland - 26-28 Mar 05

www.ulsterautomobileclub.co.uk

• 2005 Northern Ireland Rally Championship

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23/01/05
Now available for download from the Ulster Automobile Club web site the Regulations & Entry Forms

www.ulsterautomobileclub.co.uk

• For More information go to Circuit of Ireland Article
  2005 Circuit of Ireland - 26-28 Mar 05

• 2005 Northern Ireland Rally Championship