latest happenings in the club

Website office (Wexford)

John Dier

Monday 27th March

Gary Nolan has been busy weith his new laptop letting all the world know what all the club members have been up to in the last while, so we decided to let his report steal the limelight and tell everyone what was going on.

Once again it’s been a hectic time for the members of Wexford motor club. After the highs and lows of the early season action, competitors and club members were recently campaigning on some of the best known event in the country.
The first event of the month was none other than Rally Ireland, the event going forward as the islands bid to host a round of the world rally championship. The event was run over two days, the stages being run back and forth across the border, signifying the cross border effort of the event.
Three Wexford crews took to the start of the event, with Wexford car dealer Eamon Boland first off the ramp at number 7 In his Ford Focus WRC. Another Wexford man in another Ford Focus was seeded at 19, Goreyman David James was out aboard his new mount and aiming to gain some extra miles on the challenging event. And the third entry from Wexford was the Proton Satria kit car of Seamus O’ Grady, who had sponsor Aidan Kent on board for the event, Seamus another to use the event as more of a testing exercise in his new Super 1600 Proton.
Over the opening loop of stages, it was the young pretender Gareth McHale who was making all the running, the young Dublin man opening up a lead over the chasing pack which was lead by tarmac champion Eugene Donnelly who had fought his way up to second after a slow start. Boland lay fourth, just behind current World rally championship campaigner Daniel Carlson, and that was to become third when the Swede suffered a puncture on his Mitsubishi Lancer WRC. James was running just outside the top ten, although some time was dropped later on in the afternoon when he suffered gearbox problems. Worse look was to follow the Newtown Wood backed Proton of Seamus O’ Grady and Aidan Kent, the pair retired after only 5 stages. It was very disappointing for Seamus, who had been on the pace of class pace setter Darren Gass when all was running well in the early stages. The end of day 1 saw Boland, with navigator Francis Regan hold third overnight, ready to pounce on the warring pair of McHale and Donnelly should either of the leading duo slip up. James was just outside the top ten, the Focus requiring a gearbox change that would have greater consequences by Sunday evening.
Day two dawned and by first service, Boland’s waiting game was starting to pay dividends as the NVD backed Focus entered service in second place, the Focus moving up due to the demise of early leader McHale who had gone off in the fog on the second of the mornings stages. Also moving down and out of the rally was David James, the Goreyman having to retire due to fumes inside the cockpit being caused by the gearbox change the previous day.
Boland and Regan kept their head over the remaining stages to take their second consecutive 2nd overall finish on Rally Ireland, the pair finishing almost 2 minutes behind the winners Eugene Donnelly and Paul Kiely while they had 2minutes to spare over the Mitsubishi Lancer WRC of world championship regular Daniel Carlson.

From one top class event to another, the Quality Hotels West Cork rally was held over the St. Patrick’s weekend and there was big interest for Wexford crews over the two-day event that featured some classic stages such as Ring and Ardfield.
First wexford crew at 24 was the Subaru of PJ McGrath with Killian Duffy on the notes. The Oakland’s Quarry Subaru was not to see the Saturday night halt, when he retires his car with engine problem. However, they were not the only ones to fail to see the end of the event. Seeded at 56 were Grahan and Tomas Scallan in their Astra. However, they were another crew to retire early with clutch failure. Also an early retirement was the similar Astra of John and Geraldine Somers who failed to make the startling after gearbox failure in their Astra. As can be seen, this year West Cork rally was very definitely a finisher’s rally and there were more who were supping pints before Sunday night. Paul Cloke and Liam O’ Leary retired at the end of day 1, while Barry Murphy and Denis Guiney were definitely one of the hard luck stories of the weekend. The Citroen Saxo was at last giving Barry a free run at the stages and the O’ Brien motorsport run car with Barry behind the wheel was proving it’s worth, leading class 6 and well up the overall order. However, it all came to an abrupt end when the Citroen left the road on stage 11, the resulting off very definitely meaning the end of Barry and Denis’s event. Alan and Brian Boggan were another not to see the Sunday stages, the Nova suffering gearbox problems on the Saturday stages.
However, as hard as it may seem, it wasn’t all bad news for the Wexford crew’s although after that tale of horrors it’s hard to believe! David Parle and Pat Gowen took overall honours in class 2, while Martin and Dorothy McGrath missed out on top honours in class 9 by 1 second in their Toyota Starlet. Shay Byrne and John Delaney were the other success story from Clonacilty, the pair bringing their Sunbeam home third in class over the two-day event. Other finishers included Willy Sinnott and Wayne Hayes who finished 63rd overall in their Peugeot 205 while in the historic section, Martin Kehoe and Barty Daye were another hard luck story when they retired their Mini just 2 stages from home. There was also a junior section in the West Cork rally, and in keeping with the main event, there was plenty of highs and lows! Seeded at 3 were John Stafford and Ann Marie Kennedy, who switched to Liam Howlett’s leaping frog Sunbeam at the 11th hour. It wasn’t a wise decision as the pair went off the road on the first stage. Brian Kirwan and Elaine Delaney were seeded at five and despite leaving their boot open on the opening stages, the pair took third in class at 7th overall. At 6 were Paddy Dwyer and Pat Doyle in another CK performance backed Corsa. The pair were the surprise package of the event, pushing regular junior rally pacesetters Barry Meade and Jason Ryan all day to take third overall.

JD