News
Motorsport-Ireland-News-March-2016-Interactive
Motorsport-Ireland-News-March-2016-Interactive
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
West Cork Rally March 12th - 13th 2016<br />
<strong>News</strong><br />
The Quality Hotel West Cork Rally will<br />
take place on the 12th & 13th March.<br />
The event is the second round of the<br />
Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac<br />
Rally Championship, the opening round<br />
of the FIA Celtic Trophy (part of the new<br />
European Rally Trophy), the opening<br />
round of the PlasticBags.ie Southern 4<br />
Rally Championship and a round of the<br />
Cork Motor Club Championship.<br />
The Cork Motor Club announced that<br />
the rally runs under an International<br />
permit for only the second time, the<br />
only previous time it did so was in 1986.<br />
The 2014 &15 winner Donagh Kelly will<br />
attempt to become the first driver to win<br />
the rally three times in succession. With<br />
Class 5 now being the highest class eligible<br />
to win the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish<br />
Tarmac Championship, the closeness of<br />
the competition in Galway should give<br />
spectators a lot to look forward to, with<br />
championship leader Keith Cronin among<br />
those expected to take part.<br />
Eight stages on the Saturday and six<br />
stages on the Sunday with centralised<br />
servicing in Darrara Agricultural College.<br />
Regulations can be downloaded from<br />
www.westcorkrally.com and<br />
Birr Motor Club<br />
Abbeyleix Manor Hotel Stages<br />
- February 21st.<br />
Cork’s Owen Murphy is making the switch to an ex<br />
Freddy Loix Skoda Fabia S2000 for West Cork.<br />
www.corkmotorclub.com and further<br />
event details will available on these sites<br />
in the coming weeks.<br />
Donegal’s Donagh Kelly and Conor<br />
Foley dominated a field of 90 cars at the<br />
Abbeyleix Manor Hotel Stages. Kelly<br />
repeated his 2015 victory and had a<br />
faultless drive all day in his WRC Ford<br />
Focus, winning this year’s event by 55.3<br />
seconds ahead of Niall Maguire and<br />
Enda Sherry in their Subaru WRC. Birr<br />
was the opening round of both the Top<br />
Part West Coast and Loughran Signs<br />
Mildand East Rally Championships.<br />
The weather conditions provided very<br />
difficult conditions to the already<br />
challenging stages. On the opener of the<br />
six stage event. Kelly emerged from the<br />
traps to take a 7.4 second lead from<br />
Welsh driver Steve Wood, with Paddy<br />
Mc Veigh a further 8 seconds behind.<br />
Carlow’s George Condell set the pace<br />
for the modified section in his class 13<br />
Starlet, just two seconds behind Mc<br />
Veigh and 18 seconds off the lead.<br />
On the second test Kellly increased his<br />
lead by 33.3 seconds to Mc Veigh who<br />
gained second after Steve Wood crashed<br />
his Subaru near the end of the stage<br />
two. Niall Maguire climbed up to third<br />
position before the first service despite<br />
having some issues with the car stalling<br />
on start lines.<br />
Fourth Placed George Condell was<br />
holding position despite having<br />
a few major moments due to the<br />
extremely slippy conditions. Kenny Mc<br />
Kinstry(WRC Subaru) at fifth place<br />
had a small rub with a bank causing no<br />
damage, while Enda O Brien (Escort)<br />
entered service in sixth. Barry Ryan<br />
(Escort)in seventh, Kevin Kelleher<br />
(Subaru) eight. Mick O Brien in his<br />
newly acquired Fiesta was ninth while<br />
Kevin Barrett rounded of the top ten.<br />
Kevin Kelleher got into a rythem and<br />
was up to fourth followed closely by<br />
the escorts of Enda O Brien and Barry<br />
Ryan. Mc Kinstry and Condell had<br />
now dropped back to seventh and eight<br />
while Trevor Mulligan (Escort) had now<br />
climbed up to ninth despite having a few<br />
battle scars after the first stage. The other<br />
Condell David in his class 14 escort<br />
rounded of the top ten after the next<br />
loop.<br />
Donagh Kelly emerged victorious after<br />
the final stage with Magurie and Mc<br />
Veigh rounding off the top 3. Cork’s<br />
Kevin Kelleher (Subaru) fought hard all<br />
day to secure fourth while Enda O Brien<br />
had a superb drive to win the modified<br />
class in his Mk2 escort. Barry Ryan and<br />
George Condell took sixth and seventh<br />
9<br />
while also clinching first and second in<br />
class thirteen. Trevor Mulligan finished<br />
eighth,11.2 seconds ahead of David<br />
Condell in ninth and both taking awards<br />
in class fourteen. Kevin Barrett in his<br />
Triton showers backed Subaru rounded<br />
off the top ten. Shane Maguire won the<br />
production group N Category and Keith<br />
Power took the R.A.E front wheel drive<br />
award while winning class 3 in his Clio.<br />
Joey Carroll with club member Mark<br />
Kirwin were the winners of class 11F<br />
with Mark taking the John Finnegan<br />
memorial cup for the highest place club<br />
member. William Cavanagh and Oliva<br />
Coen were second in class 12 in their<br />
escort, while Frank Dwyer navigated<br />
Thomas Lynch to second in class 11F.<br />
David Forde and T.J O Brien won class<br />
15 and Brian Kirwin and William Ryan<br />
won class 1 and also collected the spirit<br />
of the rally award in their hired Honda<br />
Civic.<br />
Clerk of the course Bill Ryan and his<br />
hard working team of volunteers would<br />
like to thank everyone who helped out<br />
in any way in making this event happen.<br />
For more information and to keep up<br />
to date with club events log onto www.<br />
Birrmotorclub.com or follow us on<br />
twitter of Facebook.
Change language