The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Third in Mexico for Nagle
It is a busy time for Kerry rally competitors and organisers, and with that in mind SEAN MORIARTY takes a look at what is happening in the rally world, up and down the country and further afield
MEXICAN WAVE
Who would want to be Kris Meeke or Paul Nagle? If they didn’t have bad luck they would have no luck. Last weekend’s Rally Mexico threw everything at them but they salvaged third place and return to fourth in the World Rally Championship after a trying weekend in Central America.
The Citroen Abu Dhabi Total World Rally Team crew were in a weekend-long fight with the Hyundai of Spaniard Dani Sordo for second and third. After 19 stages and three days of action just six second separated the two crews.
On the opening test of Sunday’s final three-stage leg , Meeke and Nagle slid wide on a cobble-stone section of road and beached their Citron C3 WRC on a high kerb. Nearly 40 seconds were lost as they waited for spectators lift them out of the dyke and then drive through the Mexican undergrowth to get back on to the stage.
The incident ultimately cost them second but what a feeling of déjà vu for their Kerry/Tyrone crew as they almost lost victory on the same rally 12 months earlier after falling off the road within site of the finish and had to drive through a Mexican field to resume competitive speeds.
For Nagle, it was a double whammy, just over ten years ago, when he and Gareth MacHale were taking their tentative steps in the WRC, the same 2018 corner ended the Ford Focus crew’s challenge.
Meeke is always first to place the blame on his own shoulder and is his own biggest critic.
At the finish on Sunday, near Las Minas, he said: “I had the car and the road position to win this rally and I didn’t do the job. I have never been so frustrated with a third place. I need to tidy my game up.”
Next up is Corsica in early April, an event they led last season until engine failure forced retirement on day two.
WEST’S AWAKE
The Triton Showers Irish National Rally championship kicked-off on Sunday with the Mayo Motorsport Club’s Achill Rally. Co-driver Keith McCarthy was the top Kerry competitor, guiding Donegal’s Stuart Darcy to seventh overall in their Darrian T9O.
Kerry Motor Club members Kevin Barrett and Sean Mulally were 11th in their Subaru Impreza WRC S14. Kevin’s son Paul with Declan Tumilty co-driving were third in their class in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10.
WEST CORK
The Irish Tarmac Rally Championship gets underway this weekend with the Clonakilty-based West Cork Rally. Cork Motor Club has attracted a massive entry across all categories – easily the biggest rally in Ireland in recent memory – with several drivers and co-drivers representing both Kerry clubs in action.
Faha co-driver Shane Buckley is the top Kerry seed alongside Daniel Cronin in a newly acquired Ford Fiesta R5. The former winners of the Kerry Winter Rally start at nine.
Aghadoe co-driver John McCarthy teams up with Donegal’s Declan Gallagher in their trusty Toyota Starlet and will start amongst the favourites to win the national rally.
Opposition will come from Killarney brother and sister crew, Rob and Tara Duggan. The Ford Escort crew won last time out on the Rentokil-Initial Killarney Historic Rally.
Kevin O’Donoghue and Dave Randles, class winners on the recent Nengah rally will also be in contention in their BMW M3 while Aghadoe’s Ed Murphy and Headford’s John Hickey have yet to nominate a co-drivers to ride shot-gun in their Escort.
Paudie Casey/Gene Stack (Toyota Corolla); Bob Moran/ Eoin O’Donoghue (Ford Escort); Charles O’Neil/ Tony McCarthy (Honda Civic); and Tommy Mason/ Conor Walsh (Ford Escort) are other all Kerry crews on the entry list.
Last year’s Kerry Motor Club AutoSolo champion Daniel Chung , with Dylan Doonan co-driving has entered his Civic in the junior section to mark his first rally outside the county.
KMC chairman PJ O’Dowd is co-driving for Adare’s Roland Doherty in the two-day event which gets underway on Saturday morning.
LIMERICK LEADERS
Tralee co-driver Sean Hegarty revealed his 2018 plans with a special event in Limerick on Friday night. Hegarty will contest the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship and other selected rallies alongside Keith Lyons in a newly acquired Ford Fiesta R5 which was unveiled at Lyons of Limerick’s Ford dealership.
MCCARTHY’S BISHOPSCOURT
The opening round of the Northern Irish Rally championship took place in Bishopscourt on Saturday. Dublin-based Currow co-driver John McCarthy was the only Kerry competitor but he and his driver John Devlin retired their Ford Escort after stage six.
SHEEHAN’S KINGDOM
The newly formed Moriarty’s Centra Kingdom of Kerry Rally championship has inspired Killarney driver Pat Sheehan to enter the Rose Hotel Circuit of Kerry for the first time.
Announced last month, the new series is open to members of Kerry Motor Club and Killarney and District Motor Club in-an-effort to encourage more local crews to enter events in the county.
Sheehan, who campaigns a two-litre Renault Clio said: “This championship has been talked about for a few years but now it is happening,” he said. “I usually do Galway or West Cork but lads can’t afford to go rallying up and down the country these days so I decided to enter Kerry instead of Cork.