Rolling back the years, the big look back
Website office(Wexford)
John Dier
Report 8. Monday 02:00
There are many sayings to do with rolling back time for a repeat of an event (usually successful), well you can think of every one and use them for Stephen Murphy’s win of the Crosbie Cedars Hotel Dick Bailey stages rally. I am full sure that Dick himself looked down on the weekend and was pleased with the outcome. I am sure that both Stephen and Micky Joe will not mind me saying that they both have grown older and a little greyer, but they both dug deep into endless reserves of talent to take the sixth win of their partnership. What odds would you get nine years ago, when Stephen won his last Wexford rally, that they would make a winning comeback. It is testament to Stephen’s skill and road craft that he could take this win against some very good opposition, considering he has had a lot less competitive miles on the clock only having made his comeback to rallying this year after nine years away from competitive motorsport. Cars are not the same as they were in 1995, rally technology has moved on a lot since then, but yet Stephen was able to step into one of these modern wonders and win.
In what must have been the worst conditions that have affected the rally for the full two days, Stephen and Donie O’Sullivan drove to the limits and gave us one of the most entertaining rallies for the last ten years. It was a constant battle of wits that lasted for fifteen stages. It was swap and swap about from the word go. It is not too bad if you only get one bad day, but for the two of them to keep it up for two wets windy and down right miserable days needs the maximum concentration and skill and these two gave it in bucket loads. The rest of the field, especially those that lasted the full rally, did not let us down either.
How must Melvyn Evans feel now, having kept station in third the dice for the win, to go out of the rally within sight of the finish line? His fine driving had made third all but his and kept the rest at bay. But when you have someone as unfortunate as Melvyn, you get someone that benefits to the same degree, enter Richie Curran. The dice he had being having with John Price for fourth and fifth, now became a dogfight for podium honours. A six second gap at the finish proved how evenly they were matched. Steve Fleck was in no mood to be caught for fifth and had a comfortable cushion of over two minutes back to the battle going on behind him. PJ McGrath and David James were locked in a battle of locals, and did they keep their fans happy. PJ eventually put nearly a minute between himself and the Gorey driver, who in turn was being hassled by John Bogie. The Scot eventually forcing his way between them. Liam Wall, who finished ninth, was eventually over a minute behind James, but had a cushion of over twenty seconds behind him. Eain Pritchard was the last of the top ten. James Stafford was just outside the top ten. How he must curse the ditch he slid into and also breaking the gear lever of the little Nova, as the four minutes odd that he lost, cost him a definite top ten, if not top five finish.
Whether it can be explained by local knowledge or not, but local drivers had a ball (if their cars stayed going. Four of the top ten were from the county. Another cluster of local drivers finished in the high teens and early twenties including the likes of David Parle and Mick Kehoe. We could be here night and day listing them out, but they all did tremendously well, despite the weather. Locals were well to the fore in most class standings
The biggest surprise of the weekend is the high finish rate. Ninety-five stuck it out to the end, giving a finish rate of just 60%. There were plenty of incidents that were of note in the retirement records. John Somers having had an engine bay fire, Willie Whitty breaking a half shaft and the Boggan brothers having quite a hard smash are just some of the reasons.
All ends up; it has been a rally full of entertainment and Surprise. What is the chance of Eamon Boland being available next year to have a battle of wits and skill? Now that is a rally worth waiting for.
The top ten at rally’s end is below.
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or go to www.wexfordmotorclub.com
1 Stephen Murphy/Micky Joe Morrisey 1:43;50
2 Donie O'Sulivan/Paul Nagle 1:44;00
3 Richie Curran/Gerry English 1:48;15
4 John Price/Caroline Price 1:48;21
5 Steve Fleck/Nigel Gardner 1:49;47
6 PJ McGrath/Dmien Morrisey 1:51;53
7 John Bogie/David Patterson 1:52;22
8 David James/Jim Crowe 1:52;42
9 Liam Wall/Bob Kelly 1:53;46
10 Eian Pritchard/Martin Jones 1:54;09
JD