Report
Killarney was experiencing an early summer on the days prior to the bank holiday weekend,
and the weather was expected to remain good for the weekend. However about an hour before the start,
a mist descended over the "Gap", but it remained dry at the stage start. Most crews went into the Gap on Slicks;
some were effected worse than others were. Austin McHale led the rally away followed in 30 seconds intervals by Fisher,
Nesbitt and Bolland. McHale was the first man to reach the Gap, but after a slight delay it was Bolland who was next on
the road. Nesbitt, on his first run over the Gap; on slicks in the wet conditions = a nightmare, was passed by Bolland.
In fact he lost over a min to the leading crews only managing 18th fastest time over the Gap. But what about Fisher?
A mile into the stage, on a "left over crest" he click a rock with the left front wheel and got a puncture.
While deciding if he would change it or not, he ran wide on a double left over a bridge,
slipped off the road ending upside down in a dyke.
With no spectators to help get the car back on the road, Fisher became the first retirement of the event.
McHale went on to record the fastest time of 11 minutes, with Bolland second on 11:11 and Lecky on 11:15.
Lecky was lucky as he had a spin on the way up the Gap.
In formula 2 Bruyneel was making the best of the conditions, 22 seconds up O’Callaghan.
Last year Paul Harris had to pull over his then acquired Legacy for hard charging BMW of Denis Cornin at the Gap.
This year he had bigger problems. Unofficially, Harris and Wilmont were 2nd fastest at the Gap.
However he lost control and clipped a rock on the left had side just exiting the Gap, the damage was fatal.
Denis Cornin, the top seeded RWD car was not in fact the fastest of the entertainers,
that honour went to the King of Entertainers: Kieran O’Neill. Running at 34 with local Co-driver Paul Nagle (Son of Maurice and Angela Nagle) they finished the Gap joint ninth fastest with O’Callaghan on 11:34.
In fact Cornin caught the Legacy of Niall Maguire on the Gap, and in fact passed him on Borlin.
With Bruyneel going off into the hillside, Cornin was the fastest 2WD car over Borlin, 3 seconds faster than O’Callaghan.
Top Honour on the stage went to Lecky on 8:41, with McHale second (8:46) and Bolland third with 8:49.
Hugh Martin Doherty was holding an impressive 4th place only 13 seconds behind Bolland with 4th fastest on both
Molls Gap and Borlin. For the Doherty brothers in the McKinstry run Legacy the rally was one to forget.
A puncture on Molls Gap left them 7 minutes off the pace and lack of Oil Pressure ended their rally on Borlin.
Another in trouble was Derek McGarrity. After blasting his New Gp N Evo V over Molls Gap in 6 quickest time,
a full 38 seconds faster that his nearest rival, he lost 3 minutes in Borlin with fuel pump problems.
But he was back on the pace again on SS4 and setting it again on SS5. However, Pat Kirk was doing enough to
hold the class lead. Liam O’Callaghan was now getting used to his new car and was
pulling away from Denis Cornin to lead the 2 wheel drives in the Dunlop/Ford Motorsport.
At service after SS4 Bolland was the man of the moment. He had set fastest time on SS3 and 4 from McHale to move
into second place. Nesbitt after two 3rd fastest times, was up to 6th, although he was over 2 minutes behind McHale.
McHale had a gearbox change at service: was he under pressure or not driving at 100% with Fisher gone?
Hugh Martin Doherty lost time with a broken drive shaft on SS3 but was still holding down 5th behind Stephen Murphy.
In the historic Section of the event the pace was just as hot, so hot in fact that over Molls Gap in the drier conditions
Dessie Nutts time of 12:02 was good enough enough for 12 fastest time overall! that in a historic Porsche 911.
However on Borlin the Porsches had to give best to local man Ed Gibbions and Mini ace Lloyd Hutchinson. With Gibbions
soon retiring after a huge spin, Nutt/Robinson began to take control and lead the event going into
the over night halt.
In the main rally winner of the West Cork rally, Donal O’Donovan was out of the event, lack of brakes, forcing the Cork man to call it a day.
Also out was hero of the Gap John Shanahan, a rear link was hanging from the car after Fuhiry.
Stephen Murphy who after a 4th fastest time on Molls Gap seemed to relax a little after that,
was now back on the pace again. He was only 2 seconds down on Lecky and McHale on Curraglass,
and then equalled McHale over Borlin 2. However it went all wrong on SS7 , Lough Allua 2.
The Statoil Escort WRC clipped a rock, getting a puncture. A side skirt was pushed on the exhaust,
and for SS8 the car was filled with smoke. Although he finished the day in 6th place a transfer box was damaged,
and with no spare his rally was run. On SS5 Curraglass 1, Nesbitt had a spin,
the dust holding Bolland up for a few seconds. Even McHale was having his moments, on the turn after the flying finish
he half spun and stalled the Celica. Despite a lack of Turbo Boost on the twister stages and a few spins
(with panel damage), Nesbitt was beginning to get to grips with the stages, and by SS8 Fuhiry he was joint
second fastest with Lecky, on 8:39 only a second behind McHale.
Lecky though was the driver of the day. He swapped times with McHale all through the afternoon:
level on SS5 Curraglass 1, 3 seconds behind on SS6, fastest time and 7 seconds up on Lough Allua 2,
dropped a few on SS8 and finished the day with a fastest time, 2 seconds up on McHale.
With Eamonn Bolland getting a puncture and then having 15 seconds road penalties after breaking a driver shaft on
the last stage, the Cable Tel backed Subaru would start the second day in second spot,
16 behind McHale and only 4 ahead of Bolland. Hugh Martin Doherty driving beyond the limit at times was up to 4th,
despite hitting a rock on the last stage, and he said he was going to have a real charge on the second day!!..HE DID!
Denis Cornin was leading the rear wheel drives, and the best Mark II was local man Tom Randles, with Diarmuid Lynch on the notes.
They had the Dyno Rod Escort up to 14th despite a very sick head gasket.
Despite visiting a few ditches along the way,
Kieran O’Neill was beating all the 2.0L Escorts to lead Class 11.
Day 2
Sunday dawned bright, and sunny, but a cold wind was keeping everybody cool. Did Hugh Martin Doherty make a charge -
He did as far as the first turn on Molls Gap.
The first few Miles on Molls Gap is all flat-out. After the "opening straight"
the first bend is a long but tight-ish left hand bend taken nearly flat out,
lined with trees on both sides.
At 137 mph the rear end of the PJD Subaru stepped out, the car did a full 360 on the road before going head long
into a tree stump on the left-hand side of the road.
It was a very close one, but both crew and car would live to rally again.
Cold tyres certainly didn’t help.
At the front of the field, McHale started to set the authority that had been expected long before now.
He blasted up Molls gap in 10:07, 8 shy of Fishers record, but
on Beallaghbeama he finished the stage with a lead of nearly a minute.
Bolland took back second stop on Molls Gap, with a time of 10:12, ten seconds up on Lecky.
But on Beallaghbeama a spin left Lecky with a time of 12:23, a full 27 seconds slower than McHale’s 11:56,
a new record for the 13 and a half miles. Bolland had major power steering problems and dropped over a minute.
In Gp N Pat Kirk beat McGarrity by one second on Molls, but retired on the next stage to hand to lead to McGarrity.
Also to go out on Beallaghbeama were local heroes Denis Cornin/Bob Kelly, the BMW shearing a damper.
Another crew in trouble were the other local heroes, Tom Randles/Diarmuid Lynch.
Steam was coming out of the exhaust on Molls Gap, and 4 minutes were dropped on Beallaghbeama putting
water into the Escort - Retirement soon followed.
Joe McGurk in the ex-Connie Smith Escort was getting worried about 4th gear, but Kieran O’Neill was now the leading
2WD drive.
Another great time over Molls Gap (11:19) was giving them a bit a breathing space over the more powerful Escort.
After service in Killorglin, 2 runs over the ultra fast Caragh Lake awaited the remaining crews.
Bolland gave his WRC Escort the fastest time on the first run on 9.48 ,
with Lecky in third complaining of a lack of Top Speed in the Subaru.
In fact he set the same time of 9:57 on both runs of the stage.
Liam O’Callaghan still continued to lead F2, although he was complaining of the dampers overheating on the bumpier stages.
Kenny McKinstry was setting better times on Sunday in the 4WD Porsche and moving up the leader board.
Everyone bar the top 2 got a chance to move up the leader board after the second run of Caragh Lake.
On the first 90 left, 200 yards into the stage, Bolland ran wide, lost it on gravel, went into a bog on
the left had side and overturned a few times, landing on the 4 wheels again.
With spectator assistance he was back on the road in no time, and continued down the stage at ten-tenths.
While the de-winged M-Sport Escort may have handled OK, and more than lighty had a higher top speed,
the car was not a pretty sight and at service after the stage retirement was the only option.
James Harrison who had worked his way up the 6th after the first run at the stage,
lost nearly 5 minutes with a puncture.
McHale was now holding a commanding lead of the event, but there were still 4 stages to go.
On Shanera 1 the drama unfolded. McHale lost 21 Seconds to Lecky when a front rose-joint failed.
When the mechanics when to change it they discovered that that it wasn’t an easy job and that the rear example
was also damaged. Despite getting help from Andrew Nesbitt’s Mechanics the Celica was 12 minutes late to the next
stage - this would give the Dubliner 3 minutes in penalties if applied.
Over the 2 Shanera stages it was Nesbitt who was fastest, the fast open stage not being effected by the turbo problems.
Also having problems on the first Shanera stage was Kieran O’Neill, but the Gearbox problems were
cured again for the last 3 stages.
In Gp N McGarrity had a huge lead but was also setting some impressive times.
With 2 stages to go he looked like taking his third win out of 3 in the tarmac series (with 3 differnet makes of cars!).
But this is rallying and McGarrity was a last minute retirement to hand the class to Gene Meegan in the Evo IV Lancer.
McHale finished the event with 2 fastest times, but it was too little and with the penalties begin applied,
James Lecky and George Millar were the winners of the 1998 Rally of the Lakes.
Driver/Co-Driver Car Time
1 James Leckey/George Millar Subaru Impreza 555 02:33:36
2 Austin McHale/Brian Murphy Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD 02:35:28
3 Andrew Nesbitt/James O'Brien Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD 02:36:17
4 Liam O'Callaghan/David Hogan Ford Escort F2 Maxi 02:40:40
5 Ken McKinstry/Noel Orr Porsche 911 4x4 02:44:36
6 Niall Maguire/Anthony Nestor Subaru Legacy RS 02:46:04
7 John O'Sullivan/Jakes Kelly Sierra RS Cosworth 4x4 02:47:51
8 Joe McGurk/Arthur Kierans Escort 2.4 (Mk II) 02:49:39
9 James Harrison/Harvey Bell Escort RS Cosworth 02:51:42
10 Kieran O'Neill/Paul Nagle Opel Kadette Coupe GTE 02:52:11
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