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2006 West Cork Rally - 18-19 Mar 06Posted: March 25, 2006 1:44 PM - 21650 Hits Round 1- 2006 Southern 4 Rally Championship
Photo: John Bayly Posted: March 25, 2006 1:44 PM
Southern 4 Championship Report The 2006 023 Tiles Southern 4 Rally Championship took off with a bang with 102 crews signing up at Round 1, the Quality Hotels West Cork Rally. As there are still two more rounds where competitors can sign up (The Killarney International Rally of the Lakes and the Circuit of Munster) this augers well for the championship this year, which has been growing year on year since it’s inception. Testament to the high esteem in which the Championship is held is the amount of northern and overseas competitors who sign up to compete, and this year is no exception, Melvyn Evans, Phil Collins, Nigel Hicklin, Dean Williams and Mark Morgan have all registered for the 2006 championship and with home based competition from people like last years winner Denis Cronin, Liam McCarthy, Donal O Donovan,George Cullen and Michael Barrable, to name a few ,the stage is set for a battle royal. The classes will also be hotly contested. Class 4 participants will include James O Sullivan (Evo 9), Kevin Kelleher (Evo9), Mark Morgan (Evo 8), Kieran O Callaghan (Evo 5) Kevin O Donoghue (Evo 9), Tadgh Linehan (Impreza N11), Mark Nangle (Impreza N10), Sebastian Stacpoole (Evo 6) and it is anticipated that Alan Ring will also register in Killarney in his new N12 Impreza. Class 14 has Phil Collins,Kevin O Donoghue and Conor Cavanagh among others vying for honours. While class 13 brings us a battle between Wesley Patterson, Gwyndaf Evans, Willie McCarthy, Leonard Downey and Alan Treacy. Sadly last years winners Denis Cronin/Helen O Sullivan, retired their Impreza WRC on Stage 1 this year with prop shaft failure and Liam McCarthy’s Corolla WRC succumbed to engine problems not long after.Melvyn Evans took full advantage of this and took a lead that he was not to relinquish for the remainder of the weekend,despite major attempts from Michael Barrable who took a number of fastest stage times on Sunday before sadly retiring on the final stage.Donal O Donovan held on for a brilliant second place finish in his ageing Celica ST 205 and John Dalton took third. Event Report Day one of the West Cork Rally took place today in dry and cold conditions around the town of Clonakilty with four stages tackled twice. Last years winner Denis Cronin led the 151 starters away in their Impreza WRC and were to become the first big retirement of the rally as their car ground to a halt in Clogagh village less than two miles into the stage with a broken propshaft. Melvyn Evans set joint fastest time on stage 1 with Liam McCarthy and after 2 stages was just 0.4 seconds ahead of McCarthy. These two began to pull away by stage 3, opening up a 30 second gap over third placed Donal O’Donovan with Kevin Kelleher a few more seconds back in fourth. More retirements followed as James O’Sullivan & Ashley Field retired on stage 2, Ballinascarthy with gearbox and engine problems respectively. Michael Barrable had got off to a slow start and was lying just outside the top ten. Brian O’Mahony driving his father Franks Metro 6R4 set a stunning stage 2 time less than one second behind Evans and McCarthy to move himself up to 5th overall. However engine problems were diagnosed at service and he was forced to withdraw. The prospects of a din-dong battle faded when Liam McCarthy retired on Stage the second run of Ballinascarthy with gearbox maladies. This promoted Donal O’Donovan to second with Kevin Kelleher just edging John Dalton for third. Dalton had set a superb fastest stage time on stage 4. The afternoon loop of stages incorporating Ring and Ballymore was all about Melvyn Evans edging further away from Donal O’Donovan bringing his lead to over 50 seconds, despite O’Donovans best efforts in his aging car. The real star of the afternoon stages was John Dalton in his Darrian as he took control of third place just 20 seconds behind O’Donovan. Kevin Kelleher was coming under pressure from a quickening Michael Barrable who was now only four seconds behind. Phil Collins had held fifth for a while but dropped back to sixth by the end of the day. Bob Fowden retired after the eighth stage after a day hampered by an overheating engine. The action resumes at 10am on Sunday morning with the first car leaving the Model Railway village as the competitors tackle eight more stages. Day 2 Day two of the Quality Hotels West Cork Rally dawned brighter and milder than the previous day, and the drama started almost immediately. Phil Collins went off the road early on Stage 9, Inchybridge, and out of the rally from 6th place. Melvyn Evans set fastest time on Stage 9 and John Dalton closed the gap to Donal O’Donovan from 20 to 16 seconds in the battle for second place. Kevin Kelleher the Gp N leader overnight began to have turbo troubles and this was to blow on the following Stage 10, Dunworley, and he was overtaken by Michael Barrable who moved into fourth place. Steve Fleck who was seventh overnight and who had been sixth after Phil Collins accident was another to fall victim to the West Cork roads as he crashed heavily on Stage 10. Kevin Kellehers turbo had to be changed in service after this stage and he dropped to 6th. Jon Ingram and George Cullen by now really speeding up and were having their own private battle for fifth place and John Dalton had to settle for third as Barrable turned on the heat in Dunworley. There was little change on the leaderboard by the end of the first loop of stages with the exception of Nigel Hicklin & Diarmuid Falvey who retired from 9th place in the Donnelly Motorsport Corolla WRC with gear linkage problems. Gwyndaf Evans was thrilling the crowds as he brought his MK2 Escort into the top 10. Melvyn Evans and Michael Barrable repeated their respective fastest times on Inchybridge and Dunworley as Dalton began to lose ground on Donal O’Donovan and fall closer to the clutches of an extremely hard charging Barrable. Kevin Kelleher had his turbo repaired but was now having brake and clutch problems and was having to ease back, but still had almost two minutes in hand over 2nd placed Mark Morgan in the Gp N battle. As the crowds got bigger and the weather got finer, most drivers eased back in a bid to get to the finish, but not so Barrable who took three consecutive fastest times to bring the gap between him self and O’Donovan to 25 seconds. However a puncture stopped his progress on the final stage and he withdrew when they had problems with jacking up the car. This made life much easier for Melvyn Evans and Donal O’Donovan who finished just 35 seconds apart after two hard days rallying. John Dalton began to feel the pressure as Ingram and Cullen closed in, but he managed to hold onto 3rd place just 18 seconds ahead of Ingram who in turn was only 2 seconds ahead of George Cullen in 5th place. Kevin & Martin Kelleher nursed their ailing Lancer home in 6th as the head gasket also began to fail to add to their car woes. However they managed to hold off Mark Morgan who was 7th and second in Gp N. Gwyndaf Evans won class 13 and was 8th overall while Kieran O’Callaghan and Wesley Patterson rounded off the top ten. A large crowd gathered at the finish ramp to welcome the winners Melvyn Evans and Sean Mullally, both of whom are winning the event for the second time. Melvyn won the event in 2002 while Sean partnered Kenny McKinstry to victory in the 2003 rally. Once again the Quality Hotels West Cork Rally was a great success, while Cork Motor Club received a major boost with the announcement by Mr. David Henry General Manager of the Quality Hotel and Leisure Centre Clonakilty that Quality Hotels are to sponsor the event for the next two years. This is great news for the club as the Hotel has proved to be an outstanding & popular rally headquarters for the past number of years. Home Town Showdown Brings Group N Victory for Kelleher Brothers The latest rally success for the Clonakilty pairing Kevin & Martin Kelleher had a decidedly home flavour for them. The St Patrick’s Weekend sunshine saw the West Cork rally as the centre of the weekend’s entertainment in their home town of Clonakilty. As last years winners of Group N on the event Kevin and his co driver Martin were in a relaxed but confident mood at the start of the rally. With the national championship taking crews to every province it was a nice change to be competing on the doorstep. It’s often the home fixture that can bring the most pressure and expectation, but this was far from the case for the Kelleher brothers. A storming time at 3rd fastest overall on the opening stage showed that the Kevin in his SWS property services Mitsubishi Evo 9 was certainly intent on setting a pace this weekend. In fact such was the pace on the first stage that no other Group N car was in the top ten and Kevin who is the current Motorsport Ireland Coleman Award runner up found himself up amongst and in front of the many WRC cars in the prestigious entry. Stage 2 and the pace continued in the same vein with Kevin 4th Overall and again the only Group N car inside the top ten. Unfortunately another strong local challenge left Group N when James O Sullivan retired his 023 Tiles Lancer on Stage 2. Kevin continued through Saturday to move after stage 3 into 3rd overall again. However the ultra fast evening stages such as the famous Ring stage saw the Evo have to give best to the Darrian of the hard charging John Dalton. The Kumho shod Kelleher Evo finished day one in a very strong 4th Overall just a bare 4 seconds better than Michael Barrable as he settled in to his new Focus WRC, but the group N lead was much more comfortable as Kevin had just under 2 minutes to spare over Mark Morgan who was next Group N just outside the top ten. With the cars in the Model Railway Parc Fermé Kevin commented “Day 1 was very good, it’s nice to be competing down around home and have friends and family come out to watch us. We certainly drove hard today, I liked the stages today having drove them last year, we still have a small problem with the response of the car out of junctions, it’s a hesitation we are still trying to cure, but despite that small problem we still went well and the pace has lifted so much from last year, we just have to keep that speed going for all of Sunday! “ Day 2 dawned just as brightly and stage 9 saw no problems for the Kelleher’s in their AMF prepared Lancer. Michael Barrable moved up a place and Kevin now stood in 5th and still dominant in Group N. However bad luck is often lurking waiting to catch you out in any rally and most often when you have a comfortable lead, the turbo charger cried enough on stage 10 and Kevin dropped over a minute as he limped out of the stage and towards service where the AMF team could change the broken unit. Such was the handicap of the turbo problems Kevin had lost time to drop him back to 6th overall, it was still enough to hold the Group N lead as Mark Morgan was in 8th overall, but the gap was now down to a less comfortable minute and a half. The new turbo saw the car revitalised over stages 11 & 12 yet the response problem still lingered at each junction. Further woes began to blight Kevin and Martin as the day wore on. A clutch slipping badly cost them time and confidence, as did brake troubles. Regardless the outlook was not bleak, the pace of day 1 was where the work had been done so Kevin began to forget about overall positions and just concentrate on preserving both his Group N lead and the car and ultimately his points score in the Southern 4 championship. After the final stage 16 Kevin coasted to the finish relieved to have made it home and once again as the winner of Group N, and a local winner also. Mark Morgan was still the group N challenger always there to take advantage if Kevin faltered and the gap to second in Group N was over 2 minutes by the finish. A delighted Kevin reached the town centre finish with Co Driver and Brother Martin who as usual was the faultless guide to Kevin’s victory. At the ramp Kevin recounted “ it was a hard day today compared to yesterday, the turbo blowing was a disappointment but the lads in service did a great job and their work kept us in the rally and left us to do the work on the stages to hold the Group N lead, then the slipping clutch worried me that we might not make it here, but we just kept our heads down and went as easy as we could manage and thankfully that worked and we are home now and great to be winning Group N here in Clonakilty” With the annual home rally now completed attention in the Kelleher camp will again focus on the National Championship and the Circuit of Kerry stages in early April, Kevin will be hoping to continue the challenge there and perhaps better his second place result on round 1 of the championship in Mayo. Kevin Kelleher is supported by KUMHO TYRES, THE BIG FELLA Clonakilty, Rally Idol, Monterra Properties, Clona Dairies Clonakilty, SWS Property Services, Motorsport Ireland Billy Coleman Award and www.XLR8Motorsport.com for more updates and copyright free images please visit Results 1 Melvyn Evans/Sean Mullally (Subaru Impreza WRC) 134m 18s, 2 Donal O'Donovan/Sean Moroney (Toyota Celica GT-Four) 134m 53s, 3 John Dalton/Gwynfor Jones (Darrian T90 GTR) 136m 51s, 4 George Cullen/Jakes Kelly (Subaru Impreza WRC) 137m 08s, 5 Jon Ingram/Ian Allsop (Ford Focus WRC) 137m 11s, 6 Kevin Kelleher/Martin Kelleher (Mit. Lancer Evo 9) GpN 138m 14s, 7 Mark Morgan/Tony Fisher (Mit. Lancer Evo 8) GpN 140m 43s, 8 Gwyndaf Evans/David Jones (Escort 2.0) 141m 21s, 9 Kieran O'Callaghan/Hugh Giles (Mit. Lancer Evo 5) GpN 141m 30s, 10 Wesley Patterson/Llinos Jones (Escort 2.0) 141m 53s. Leaders After SS1 Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Toyota Corolla WRC) SS2 Melvyn Evans/Sean Mullally (Subaru Impreza WRC) SS3 Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Toyota Corolla WRC) SS4- Melvyn Evans/Sean Mullally (Subaru Impreza WRC) Stage Winners SS1 Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Toyota Corolla WRC) SS2 Melvyn Evans/Sean Mullally (Subaru Impreza WRC) SS3 Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Toyota Corolla WRC) SS4 John Dalton/Gwynfor Jones (Darrian T90 GTR) SS5 Melvyn Evans/Sean Mullally (Subaru Impreza WRC) SS6 Melvyn Evans/Sean Mullally (Subaru Impreza WRC) SS7 Melvyn Evans/Sean Mullally (Subaru Impreza WRC) SS8 Melvyn Evans/Sean Mullally (Subaru Impreza WRC) SS9 Melvyn Evans/Sean Mullally (Subaru Impreza WRC) SS10 Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Ford Focus WRC) SS11 Melvyn Evans/Sean Mullally (Subaru Impreza WRC) SS12 Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Ford Focus WRC) SS13 Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Ford Focus WRC) SS14 Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Ford Focus WRC) SS15 Michael Barrable/Dermot O'Gorman (Ford Focus WRC) ss16 Donal O'Donovan/Sean Moroney (Toyota Celica GT-Four)
West Cork Rally PRE EVENT NEWS
15/03/06 Brian O'Mahony hits the stages again this weekend as he competes in the West Cork Rally using his father’s Metro 6R4. “I’m lucky enough to be given the job of shaking down the Metro for my Dad. Its quite a change from the Puma so I’m just going out to enjoy it ” 14/03/06 Time and Distance Schedule and Scrutiny Schedule on George Cullen will drive the Ex-Kevin Lynch Subaru Impreza WRC in West Cork this weekend. Co-Driver for the rally will be Jakes Kelly 09/03/06 Preview The entry list for the Quality Hotels West Cork Rally, which takes place on 18th & 19th March, was released over the weekend, and judging by the quality of the entry, we are in for another excellent weekend of rallying. 151 cars from the main field will take to the start, to be joined by the 20 Historics from Stage 5 and 20 Juniors from Stage 13. First car away from the Clonakilty start will be that of last year’s winners Denis Cronin & Helen O’Sullivan from Bantry in their Subaru Impreza WRC. Denis will be out to retain his crown but faces a very stern test from the cars behind. At number 2 on the road is Liam McCarthy with co-driver Kieran Murphy who will be looking to go one better than last year when they lost the lead they had held throughout the event with only two stages to go. This West Cork crew will revert back to their Toyota Corolla WRC for this year’s event. At number 3 is Melvyn Evans who was a winner in 2002 and who has finished inside the top three in his last four West Cork appearances. He will be co-driven by Limericks Sean Mullally who was winning co-driver in 2003 with Kenny McKinstry. At 4 is Michael Barrable with the experienced Dermot O’Gorman calling the notes. Michael led the event in 2003 before mechanical problems intervened and despite his long absence from the sport should be quickly on the pace in his new ’05 spec Focus WRC, which he debuts here in West Cork. Number 5 is another quick local man Donal O’Donovan in a Toyota Celica ST205. In this car other less capable drivers might struggle, but not so with Donal who drove it to victory in Baltinglass last year. Donal will be co-driven by Sean Moroney and can’t be ruled out from repeating his 1998 win. Ballymena’s Nigel Hicklin who is by now a regular on the event fills the number 6 berth. He is navigated as always by Sam McMullen and will drive a Donnelly Motorsport Toyota Corolla WRC. The West Cork Rally is familiar to rest of the top ten also, J.J.Fleming and Robbie Ward are at 7 in their Focus WRC while Steve Fleck and Mark Aspinwall are back in their Subaru WRC at 8, hoping to at least repeat their podium finish from last year. Tony Davies with Patrick Walsh alongside is at 9 in his Impreza WRC Tony held third place for much of the event last year and set some fastest times before an accident put him out of the running. At 10 are Clonakilty brothers, Kevin & Martin Kelleher who are out in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 and they will be hoping to repeat last years Group N win which set Kevin on his way to finishing runner up in the Billy Coleman award. Outside of the top ten there are drivers of the calibre of Bob Fowden, a three time winner of the event in his Impreza WRC, Jon Ingram who makes his first trip to Clonakilty in his Focus WRC and George Cullen in an Impreza WRC S9 who is back fir the first time since 1995. Phil Collins with Nicky Grist co-driving leads the strong modified section in his Escort followed by the rapid Darrians of Ashley Field & John Dalton who are all capable of a good result if any of the top ten runners makes a slip up. James O’Sullivan who led Gp N last year until he crashed on the penultimate stage is at 18 in his Lancer Evo 7. The first competing car will leave Parc Ferme at the Model Railway Village on the Inchydoney Road at 10am on the Saturday morning with the winner due at the finish ramp in Clonakilty at 5.15pm on the Sunday. The stages to be used on Saturday are as follows; SS 1&3 Clogagh at 10:47 & 12:49 SS 2&4 Ballinascarthy at 11:21 & 13:23 SS 5&7 Ring at 14:37 & 16:46 SS 6&8 Ballymore at 15:19 & 17:28 Sundays stage is as follows; SS 9&11 Inchy Bridge at 10:04 & 12:09 SS 10&12 Dunworley at 10:32 & 12:37 SS 13&15 Ardfield at 14:12 & 16:16 SS 14&16 Sams Cross at 14:48 & 16:52 There will be service after every two stages and will be located in the West Cork Technology Park on the road to Cork both days of the rally. Rally Headquarters will be at the Quality Hotel and Leisure Centre who are the main sponsors of the event. All information on the rally, including the entry list is available on www.westcorkrally.com. Entry Lists will be updated Daily on: 05/03/06 Top 20 1 Denis Cronin/Helen Sullivan (Subaru Impreza WRC) 2 Liam McCarthy/Kieran Murphy (Toyota Corolla WRC) 3 Melvyn Evans/Sean Mullaly (Subaru Impreza WRC) 4 Michael Barrable/Dermot O Gorman (Ford Focus WRC) 5 Donal O`Donovan/John O Rahilly (Toyota Celica GT-Four) 6 Nigel Hicklin/Diarmuid Falvey (Toyota Corolla WRC) 7 JJ Fleming/Robbie Ward (Ford Focus WRC) 8 Steve Fleck/Mark Aspinwall (Subaru Impreza WRC) 9 Tony Davies/Patrick Walsh (Subaru Impreza WRC) 10 Kevin Kelleher/Martin Kelleher (Mit. Lancer Evo 9) 11 Bob Fowden/Jerry Hynes (Impreza WRC) 12 John Ingram/Ian Ausop (Ford Focus WRC) 14 George Cullen/Jakes Kelly (Subaru Impreza WRC) 15 Phil Collins/Nicky Grist (Escort MkII) 16 John Dalton/Gwynfor Jones (Darrian T90 GTR) 17 Ashley Field/Janice Hooley (Darrian T90) 18 James O'Sullivan/Adrian Deasy (Mit. Lancer Evo 7) 19 Mark Morgan/Tony Fisher (Mit. Lancer Evo 8) 20 Barry Coleman/Don Montgomery (Subaru Impreza WRC) 21 Kieran O Callaghan/Hugh Giles (Mit. Lancer Evo 9) All Entry lists on: 26/02/06 Phil Collins enters with Nicky Grist Co-Driving Phil Collins has entered the West Cork Rally for the fifth year running, and this year he will have none other than World Rally Championship Co-Driver Nicky Grist sitting alongside him. Grist, who has been victorious in 21 World Rally events, was last in West Cork in 2003 when he navigated Damien Cole to 10th place in the Darrian. Cork Motor Club member Owen Murphy, who had a superb second place in last weekends Carrick on Suir Forestry Rally, has also entered in a 2.2 litre Sunbeam Lotus. 11/02/06 Entries close at the reduced rate on February 20 Accommodation Details Michael Barrable expected to use ’05 spec Ford Competitors are reminded that regulations for the Quality Hotels West Cork Rally, organised and promoted by the Cork Motor Club, are available for download from www.westcorkrally.com Competitors are further reminded that entries, fantastic value at €550 and €20 down on last year, close at the reduced rate on February 20, so log on and get your entry in. For those looking for Accommodation may be had by contacting: Imelda Walsh on 086 2210036 (00 353 86 2210036 from the UK) between 6 and 8PM only. 2005 winner and 2nd on the Fastnet Rally Denis Cronin has stated his intention to take part in the 2006 event. Also interested are Michael Barrable looking to debut his recently acquired ’05 spec Ford Focus WRC in another attempt to win the event he led for a time in 2003. Nigel Hicklin plans to use a Donnelly Motorsport Corolla while 2002 winner Melvyn Evans should have 2003 winning co-driver Sean Mullally alongside him in what could be a winning combination. J.J.Fleming & Robbie Ward have also made enquiries about taking part. Other drivers who have expressed an interest in tackling the sixteen special stages around Clonakilty include Wesley Patterson, Kevin Kelleher, John Dalton, Connor Curley, Willie McCarthy, Ashley Field & Gwyndaf Evans. 30/01/06 Regulations availble to down on: 25/01/06 Press Release 1 The Quality Hotels West Cork Rally will run for the 28th time on the 18th & 19th March 2006 with Brian O’Connell as Clerk of the Course once again. Currently the regulations are awaiting approval from M.S.I. and should be available shortly. As with the 2005 event, regulations will not be posted out to competitors and can only be downloaded. If you would like us to email you when the regulations appear on the site, please send an email to info@corkmotorclub.com with REGS on the subject line. This year the event will have 160 stage miles over closed roads with servicing held in one centralised area over the two days. There will be a service after every two stages. The format of the event is the same as last year with sixteen special stages, four stages run twice on the Saturday and four more stages run twice on the Sunday. Pace note making will be permitted. There is the usual strong interest from overseas crews, in particular Wales & England where 2002 winner, Melvyn Evans, along with Phil Collins, John Dalton, Gwyndaf Evans, Gareth Lloyd & Jon Ingram have all expressed an interest in taking part. Locals will also be well represented, with Liam McCarthy, Denis Cronin, Willie McCarthy, Kevin Kelleher, Jerry O’Mahony, Gerard O’Connell & Martin Daly, planning to compete. The Historic Rally will run from Saturday afternoon loop of stages and all through Sunday, while for the first time in West Cork, Juniors will be catered for. They will get four stages on Sunday afternoon. Information on accommodation which includes the Rally HQ, The Quality Hotel & Leisure Centre, is available on the event website. As this event is one of the most popular on the calendar, it is advisable to book accommodation as early as possible. Once again this year Cork Motor Club are very grateful to associate sponsors Delaney Oils and the Traders of Clonakilty as well as the West Cork Rally Fundraising Committee for their continued financial support, which has made a huge contribution to the success of the rally over the years. 19/01/06 Regulations will be available shortly for the 2006 West Cork Rally. The event will again be based in the Quality Hotel in Clonakilty are run a compact loop of stages around the host town. 4 Stages x 2 on Saturday, and 4 different stages by 2 on Sunday, with centralised service area each day.
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West Cork Rally
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