2014 Quality Hotel Clonakilty West Cork With little over a week to go to the Quality Hotel Clonakilty West Cork Rally almost 160 entries have been received across all categories. As the rally is the second round of the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Modified Championship there has been a lot of interest and the quality of the entry reflects this. There are 128 names on the list for the main field, to be led away by the Subaru Impreza WRC of Denis Cronin and Coleman Hurley who were so close to victory in 2013 only to crash out on the final stage. Denis has won this event once before, in 2005, and will be very keen to top the podium again. At 2 are Daragh O’Riordan and Tony McDaid in their Ford Fiesta WRC who will be hoping that the previous years’ experience in the car will stand to them. Daragh did win the Cork 20 in 2013 and was third here last year, and as a former winner of this event in 2012 should be in the hunt for overall honours. Melvyn Evans and Patrick Walsh are at 3 in their Subaru Impreza WRC and although Melvyn hasn’t been here since 2007, he has won the event twice in the past (2002 & 2006). The West Cork roads will hold no surprises for the Welshman despite lack of time in the car over the past 12 months and he will be one to watch. Making their first visit to Clonakilty, Donagh Kelly from Donegal with Kevin Flanagan co-driving are at number 4 in their Ford Focus WRC. This crew were runners up in the Irish Tarmac Championship in 2013 and were recently third overall in the Galway International as their pace increases so shouldn’t be too far away at the conclusion of the rally. Robert Barrable and Damien Connolly at 5 bring their exciting Ford Fiesta R5 to Clonakilty after experiencing top level competition in Monte Carlo back in January. Robert who is yet another previous winner (2011) of the event will be looking to get some more testing miles on the car over the fast and flowing West Cork stages. Last year’s runners up Owen Murphy and James O’Brien start at 6 in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 and the former Irish Forestry Champion will be as spectacular as ever to watch. Mick O’Brien and Stephen Quinn are at 7 in a Focus WRC, and although Mick has tended to lean more towards forestry events in Ireland, he has achieved some good results in the Fastnet Rally. One of Ireland’s most exciting talents starts at number 8, in the form of Donegal’s Declan Gallagher with Ryan Moore on the notes. This pairing are currently leading the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Modified Championship in their Toyota Starlet after a tremendous drive in Galway, and although they have not been to Clonakilty before, Declan’s talent will ensure that this won’t be much of an obstacle. Frank Kelly and Liam Brennan are at 9 in their Ford Escort after finishing sixth overall on the 2013 rally. Frank loves the Ring stage and set some excellent times last year even though it was only his second time doing the event. Rounding off the top ten are Alan Ring and Adrian Deasy in a Gp N Subaru Impreza hoping to match or better their previous best result back in 2012 when they came 4th overall. Outside of the top ten there is no let-up in the quality with Adrian Hetherington, Phil Collins, Wesley Patterson & Pat Donegan (Patterson is currently second in the Modified Championship) all in extremely rapid Escorts. Rounding off the top 20 places are Damien McCarthy (Puma), Jason Ryan (Starlet), Jason McSweeney, Billy McLelland (both in Lancers), Brian O’Keeffe & Mark Nangle (both in Imprezas). The competition doesn’t end there with a lot of entries in both 11R and 11F classes as well as class 13, while current Irish Tarmac Group N Champion and Billy Coleman award winner Stephen Wright will compete in a Peugeot 208 as he aims to get more tarmac experience in his new car. There is a large overseas entry this year with 31 in total across the three categories coming from the US, England, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man. In the Historic Category, Adrian Kermode & Maurice Beckett from the Isle of Man in a Porsche 911 is the top entry followed by the 1982 Irish Tarmac Champions John Coyne & Christy Farrell in a Sunbeam Lotus. Darren Moon from York is at three in his Ford Escort RS1800 and should be very quick despite not having been to West Cork before, while current Irish Tarmac Historic Champions James O’Mahony & Kerrie Barry will compete in a Volvo. The Junior Category has 22 entrants and will be led away by Richard Moore from Wexford followed by Conor McCarthy both of whom are in Honda Civics. James Bradley is at 3 in a Ford Escort, while an interesting entry is at 4 in the shape of UK crew Alex Parpottas and Alex Kiruhani in a Fiesta R2. The first car will leave the start ramp at 11.35 for a short service with the first stage, the classic Ring, getting under way at 12.07pm. The Ring stage promises to be a tough opener as it’s almost 12 miles long and incorporates some of the old Dunworley stage for the first time ever in this format. Clogagh and Ballinascarthy are the next stages up before service in Darrara Agricultural College. All three stages are then repeated before another service then it’s onto the final stage of the day which is a short three mile blast to the west of Clonakilty and the cars will then head to Parc Ferme at around 17.45. The following day will see proceedings open with another classic stage, Ardfield at 11.25 and this will be followed by Glandore and Sams Cross before service at 1pm in Darrara Agricultural College. The same three stages are then repeated to complete the 13 stages and the first car is due back at the finish ramp at 15:40 after 200kms of rallying. The Historic Rally will begin on Stage 4 (Ring 2) while the Junior Rally will be over all six stages on the Sunday. Anyone who still wishes to compete are reminded that entries are still open at €599 for the main field, €380 for the historic rally and €299 for the junior competitors (€100 refund available here if both crew members marshal on the Saturday). Scrutiny will take place from 4pm to 10pm on Friday 14th March in Clonakilty Car Centre and Parc Ferme will be in the Model Railway Village on the Inchydoney Road as usual. The event will be recorded for TV by Sports Vision and will be shown on UTV, TG4, Setanta and Motors TV in the coming weeks. The full seeded list will be available on corkmotorclub or westcorkrally from 6pm on Thursday 6th March.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 19:22:42 +0000
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