The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Kerry gears up for huge weekend of motorsport
page 66
THIS weekend’s Circuit of Kerry rally is set to be the biggest in years with over 130 cars from all over Ireland and beyond set to take to the start line outside the Rose Hotel on Sunday morning.
Such is the strength in depth of the entry, picking a winner is almost an impossible task. The starting list reads like a who is who of Irish rallying with no less than four national rally champions set to contest the challenging eleven-stage route.
Main Field
TWO of the favourites come from County Donegal with recent West Cork winner Donagh Kelly in a Ford Focus and Declan Boyle driving a Fiesta World Rally, who won in Mayo last month, amongst the top seeds.
Current Top Part West Coast Rally championship leader Roy White will be looking to extend his lead at the front of the popular regional series following his victory on round one in Nenagh in February at the wheel of his Ford Fiesta.
The rally is also round two of the Triton Showers National Rally series and company boss Kevin Barrett, a long-time member of Kerry Motor Club, will drive his beautifully prepared Subaru Impreza World Rally car on the eleven-stage event.
Other serious contenders for overall honours include rally legend Kenny McKinstry in another Impreza and former Irish forest rally champion, London-based Mick O’Brien, in another Focus.
Donegal driver Joe McGonigle in a BMW Mini World Rally car is a dark horse having won in Mayo and Derry in recent year’s but this is his first visit to the Circuit of Kerry.
Apart from O’Brien, other overseas entries have come for Scotland (Lee Hastings, Impreza) and Wales (Tomos Davies, BMW) and Ian Davies (Escort), the latter employing local co-driver Ger Conway to guide him over the West and Mid Kerry roads.
Local Class Contenders
CLASS 14 is going to be the most-keenly contested category after the overall prize with over 20 cars listed to take part in the big engine two-wheel drive class.
Local favourites Mike Quinn and Tony Healy are multiple class winners at this level and will be expected to take the class title back to Lyrecrompane in their Ford Escort. Other local crews in contention include Charlie and Johnny Hickey; Tommy Mason and Conor Walsh, Tim Enright and Stephen Buckley; Vincent O’Shea and Brian Hickey, Ed Murphy (who has yet to nominate a codriver) and Tadgh O’Sullivan and Eoin O’Leary while local co-drivers Denis O’Connell and Keith McCarthy are down to sit with Ed Syan and Stuart Darcy. All of the above are competing in Escorts apart from Darcy and McCarthy who steer the only Darrian T90s in the event.
Class 13 is another competitive affair with crews like Ger O’Brien and John Liston; Sean Enright and Kevin Doherty and Pat Barry and Kevin Tydings (Escorts); Tom Relihan and Maurice McElligott (Escort Mk1) leading the Ford challenge.
Paudie Casey from Abbeydorney competes in a Toyota Corolla while Listowal father and son team John and John Joe Daly wheeling out a new Honda Civic. Tralee co-driver Mikie Cleary competes in this category alongside Cork driver Pat Aherne in another Escort.
The only local crew in Class 12 are Maurice and James Browne is another Escort.
Class 11R has plenty of local interest with father and daughter team Jason and Megan Costelloe, and Eddie Kennelly and Timmy Murphy expected to be near the front. James and Tim Kissane steer another Escort while Donal Flynn and Niall Myers from Castlemaine drive a Toyota Corolla.
Kerry Motor Club member Paddy O’Rourke from Brosna drives a Toyota Corolla with Chris Browne on the notes. Mike Kenny and Gene Stack are likely to feature at the top end of the class battle in their Escort. Killarney’s Kevin O’Sullivan and Sean Nolan also compete in this class in another Escort.
The front-wheel drive 1600cc class will be another keenly contested affair with Tralee’s Darren Young and Pa Lawlor likely to be frontrunners in their Honda Civic following their category win in Nenagh in February. John McCarty, Shane McCarthy, both have yet to nominate co-drivers, and Connor Murphy/ David Gleeson will all drive similar Hondas.
Denis Nagle and Timmy Kelly, better known for organising Autocross events in Killarney are the only local crew in class 9 in their Nissan Micra. Pat Sheehan and Tom Kelliher compete in Class 3 in a Renault Clio while Denny Greaney co-drives for DJ Brown in a Class 2 Citroen.
There is plenty of local interest in class 20 for modified four-wheel drive cars. Headford’s John Hickey and co-driver John Creedon will drive his home-built Escort fitted with Subaru running gear.
Radio Kerry sound engineer Trevor Galvin and his co-driver Vincent Hilliard compete in a Subaru Legacy while Brian Doherty from Glenflesk is on pace-note duty for Limerick driver Eamon Daly in a Mitsubishi Lancer.
Historic Rally
IN the Historic element of the rally, all eyes will be on Mark Falvey.
The Ford Escort Mk1 driver is a previous winner of the Killarney Historic rally and will well capable of mixing times with the more modern cars. Kerry motor club chairman PJ O’Dowd, and co-driver John Flaherty, is a former national champion in this category in his Talbot Sunbeam while Tarbert’s Denis Dowling returns to the sport after a few years away in Escort RS1800.
David Griffin tackles his second rally in a Toyota Corolla. All four crews will be contenders for the historic trophy in the Moriarty’s Centra Kingdom of Kerry Championship.
Junior Rally
FORMER Kerry Motor Club Autosolo Daniel Chung is the top local driver on the junior rally entry, marking his third outing in his Honda Civic. His competition will come from Steven O’Connor in another Honda.