Nagle and Breen are top seed in strong Galway Rally field
Sean Moriarty
THE top seed for the strongest field in an Irish rally for well over a decade is Killarney man Paul Nagle. This weekend’s Corrib Oil Galway International Rally marks the opening round of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship and has attracted over 120 entries including over 25 state of the art R5 rally cars.
Leading the field is former Citroen World Rally Team driver Craig Breen who will be co-driven by Nagle in a Ford Fiesta R5.
It is 20 years since the Aghadoe man made his Galway debut but since then he has climbed to the sport’s highest level and can now boast five victories on World Rally Championship events making him Motorsport Ireland’s most-successful licence holder ever – ex-Formula 1 driver Eddie Irvine has four Grand Prix wins to his name.
Nagle and Breen are using the Irish season-opener to keep match fit in the hope that they will return to the WRC as a team before the year is out.
Galway Motor Club’s decision to take a year out of organising its international rally and change from a two-day format to just a single day of competitive action has paid dividends and the healthy entry list for the rally reads like a who’s who of Irish rallying.
This will fill Killarney and District Motor Club with confidence too as they will hope that many of the big names on the list will also place entries for the 40th Rally of the Lakes in May.
The Galway entry list boasts several past winners of the Killarney rally including Donagh Kelly in a new Skoda Fabia R5, Sam Moffett in his usual Ford Fiesta R5, Gary Jenning driving a Subaru Impreza World Rally Car and defending champion Manus Kelly in a new Hyundai R5.
KDMC’s Daniel Cronin is also entered in another Fiesta R5.
Virtual reality
NOEL O’Sullivan Jr re-joins his former Junior WRC championship driver Jon Armstrong in another Fiesta. Armstrong has not competed in over a yea, his last outing with O’Sullivan was the 2017 Rally Spain. His return to rallying has followed an unusual route, he turned his attention to Esport and became the video game virtual reality world rally driving champion in Germany last year. He has also worked with CodeMasters, the video game developer, and has acted as a driving consultant to its new DiRT rally simulator for PlaySation.
The Fiesta he will share with O’Sullivan in Galway next weekend will carry CodeMasters and DiRT livery as they step from virtual-reality to reality.
Modified masters
TWO Killarney father and son teams will go head-to-head in the modified section of the rally. Kevin and Colin O’Donoghe in their BMW M3 will face the Ford Escort Mk2 of Charlie and Johnny Hickey in a race to decide the fastest Kerry rally family in Galway. This will be the first time that the Hickeys have contested the Galway International Rally.
Defending Moriarty’s Centra Kingdom of Kerry Rally Championship winning co-driver Damian Fleming is also on the entry list, alongside Monaghan’s Raymond Conlon in a Toyota Corolla.
Junior Rally
AGHADOE’S Connor Murphy is the top seed in the Junior section of the rally. Co-driven by Lixnaw’s Keith McCarthy, they will drive a Honda Civic.
Killarney Club Person of Year
KILLARNEY and District Motor Club presented its “Club Person of the year 2018” award to Bob Moran (Glenflesk) at its January club meeting. Club chairman Diarmuid Cronin said: “[Because of]Bob’s dedication and commitment to the Club throughout every event he runs, his willingness to help out at any hour whatever the cause may be and for his long time passion for motorsport within the club. [He is] a true club man and honourable recipient of the award.”