Club happenings in August

Website office(Wexford)

John Dier & Gary Nolan

Thursday 25th August

Just to remind anyone that is interested, the launch of this years Dick Bailey Stages rally is tonight(Thursday)at 8.30pm in the Cedars Hotel, Rosslare. There will be cars on view and a few more things as well. Entertainment will be by Speedy and Thomas, a good band so I have heard on the grapevine!!!Meanwhile, here is the rest of the club news.

It’s been a busy summer for the rallying fraternity across the country, with events across the country all receiving maximum entries and generally being held in glorious sunshine! And yes, this is Ireland I’m talking about! Wexford crews have been to the fore of the activity, withy many crews at the sharp end of the stage times in the battle for both class and overall honours.

The Raven’s crock rally, based in the Ard Ri hotel in Waterford, took place at the end of June. The event was won by Kilkenny’s Ray Breen in his Ford Focus WRC with Andrew Purcell on the notes, 20 seconds ahead of Charlie Donelly and Paddy Toner in their Toyota Corolla WRC. Wexford motor club members were once again in the thick of the class action, the two James Stafford’s took the ultra competitive class 11, just over a minute and were also among the top 2wd finishers. Liam Wall led class 13 in the early stages but after a slight altercation with a bank, had to settle for 2nd in class behind the Suirway Forklifts escort of James Coleman. Goreyman David James was as entertaining as ever on his way to third in class. There was also class success for Tomas O’ Rourke and John McGrath, beating the more powerful Formula 2 kit cars on his way to class 7 laurels. In the junior section of the event, Seamus O’ Grady was the class of the field, taking victory by over a minute, with Kenny O’ Brien and Tom Byrne third among the juniors.

The motor club ran its next event, the club’s first sprint for sometime, in scorching heat in Campile. The pace was as hot as the weather and it was non-stop action through-out the day. A massive entry of over 120 cars turned up for the event, making it the highest attended sprint this year. With the flat out nature of the event, it was inevitable that the single-seater entrants were going to be the men to beat. And indeed it was Darryl Ramsey who took the honours, just three-tenths of a second ahead of Enda Byrne with Andrew Herman less than a tenth of a second back in third! Close or what! The first of the rally cars was Willy Whitty, the silver bullet Mk2 Escort being driven on the limit to finish 5th overall. Next up was the ever spectacular David James, who just edged out another mk2 man Peter Bogan aboard his Zakspeed hillclimb Escort. Andrew Morris took 8th in his Subaru Impreza, just edging out the local hero John Somers who had a cracking run to 9th overall and he also took the 1600cc class. Rounding off the top ten was Dungarvan man Tommy Kiely, aboard his pristine mk2, the Escorts still proving the most popular among drivers and spectators alike! That evening say the first traffic jam in Campile for quiet some time and once again, we would like to say a sincere thank you to all the residents who both allowed us to use their roads for the day and helped us with the running of the event and to the marshals who without, there simply would be no motorsport.

The first weekend in August saw the next round of the national rally championship take place, the Stonethrowers rally based in Clonmel. Although sunshine greeted the crews on the Sunday morning, persistent rain the day before had left the early stages very greasy and would test the drivers to the max. Stage 2 saw the first upset when no.1 seed James Harrison went off the road and what he taught, out of the rally. However, on the same stage some three minutes later, a more serious accident occurred involving Leitrim man Sean Gallagher in his Subaru WRC. The car left the road and the subsequent fire meant the stage was impassable. The time delay allowed Harrison to re-join the rally although with a two and a half minute penalty! As in Waterford, the event turned into a fight between the Ford Focus of Ray Breen and the Toyota Corolla of Charlie Donnelly. After 8 hard fought stages, it was once again Breen who took the victory by a mere 5 seconds from Donnelly with Bunclody man Noel Redmond in his Subaru WRC rounding off the top three. Fourth was the winner of the production class, Michael Curran with Harrison picking up some crucial championship points in his fight back to fifth.

As so often, our own club members were to the fore of the action, and not just in the classes. Stage 3 felt like a club party with a section roughly a quarter of a mile long claming three of the class favourites, Willy Whitty, James Stafford and Seamus O’ Grady. In the end it was Liam Wall, with the ever green Bob Kelly on the notes who led home the Wexford club members with a fantastic 12th overall and first in class 13. David James followed Liam home in 16th overall and second in class. Tomas O’ Rourke was as quick as ever and took an excellent 19th overall and the honours in class 7. The ultra competitive class 11 saw Mark Kennedy take third in class after the demise of Stafford with John Somers fourth, John dropped from second to fourth on the last stage when he backed off just a little two much. However, the Nova seems to be coming to the fore and I ain’t going to say anymore because I would probably curse it! Mick Kehoe and Tim Boyle took third in class 7 while Nicky Cahill and Barry Barron to the class 3 honours despite a one minute penalty. David Parle and Aidan Kent came back out to the stages to take class 2.

David James and Liam Wall were recently invited to the renowned Lurgan Park rally in Northern Ireland, for the first invitational escort challenge to be held in the park. While it’s a very entertaining days rallying, its serious business and the tree lined lanes of the park have caught out some of the biggest names in rallying over the years and leave no margin for error! Liam struggled with the sprint nature of the event, but entertained the crowds by spectacularly flinging the glorious sounding mk2 between the trees for a great days entertainment, all this despite his co-driver Bob Kelly carrying a slight injury after crashing his bicycle in recce! Only in Lurgan park! David on the other hand, was in scintillating form, as he fired the now famous black and amber mk2 through the lanes in typical spectacular fashion, to finish second to Lurgan Park regular Camillus Bradley. It was a fantastic achievement and the Goreyman will surely be high on the list of wanted men when the rally comes around again in twelve months time!

JD