Now for the serious stuff to start.

Rally HQ, Riverbank House Hotel

John Dier

Saturday 6th September. Rally Day 1 08.30hrs

All the preparation is now over the cars are raady and the tanks have been filled and the start is upon us. The one thing we know before we start is that we are going to have a first time winner of the rally by 6.30pm tomorrow evening, but we don't know which of the drivers it is going to be. We could have one of the most open rallies in years. We have a packed field with a lot of local drivers well to the fore in the packed, maximum field. While Gareth McHale would stand out as the bookies favourite, PJ McGrath must pose a very serious challange for top honours and make it yet another local winner. David James and the top two wheel drive entrant, James M Stafford in the Darrian will be chasing, with all the county cheering them on, will be drivers that cannot be taken out of the equation. Andrew Purcell will be giving his all for GrpN honours, with the top seeded UK driver, Neil Williams, driving his ultra fast Escort. Wesley Patterson, Mark Nangle, Washinton James and Liam Wall will complete a very fast top 10.

With many rallies going on within the rally, the Evo challange, C2R2 Irish cup, the Rory galligan 205 challange and the Triton Showers South East Stages championship, there will be plenty of interest right down the field. Don't think that the top 10 will be the rally and the rest make up the numbers, try tell that to the likes of Owen Murphy Damien Tourish, Barry Evans and Martin Tynan and everyone else involved in all the cups mentioned above. When all that is taken into consideration, and then think of the juniors coming into the field tomorrow, where else could you get a weekend's entertainment free to watch on the highroads and byeroads of County Wexford. With the weather to supposedly slightly improve over the weekend, watch and take it all in and remember one of the best rallies of the year.

Top 10 starters

Gareth MacHale	   Brian Murphy		Ford Focus WRC	
PJ McGrath	   Billy Collins	Subaru Impreza	
David James	   Jim Crowe		Ford Focus Wrc	
James M Stafford   Frankie Dwyer	Darrian T90 GTR	
Andrew Purcell	   Mark Wiley		Mitsubishi Evo 9	
Neil Williams	   Eurig Davies	        Ford Escort	
Wesley Patterson   Martin McGarrity	Ford Escort 
Mark Nangle	   Nollaig Breen 	Subaru Impreza	
Washington G James Geoff Forster	Darrian
Liam Wall	   Dennis O'Mahony	Ford Escort

If you want to let us know of happenings on the course, crashes, retirements and the likes, text us on 086 0423853

JD