Skibbereen & District Car Club are delighted to announce details of the entry list and timetable for the 2007 West Cork Hotel Fastnet Stages Rally.
With the overall title on the Dunlop National Rally championship already decided, many of the top seeds are crews using the event as a shakedown for Ireland’s up coming round of the world rally championship, and those competitors contesting the 023 Tiles Southern 4 rally championship.
Leading the 151 starters in the main field will be current tarmac champions, Eugene Donnelly & Paul Kiely, driving a Skoda Fabia WRC. Their objective for the weekend is to use the stages around Skibbereen to acclimatise to the new car ahead of Rally Ireland. The young Norwegian driver Andreas Mikkelsen who is a regular visitor to Ireland starts at No 2 in his Ramsport Ford Focus. The leading challenger in the 023 Tiles Southern 4 Rally Championship is Tim McNulty who will start as car 3 on the road. McNulty with co-driver Eugene O’Donnell won the last 2 rounds of the Dunlop National Rally championship, and is one of 9 drivers who could take the 023 Tiles Southern 4 rally championship in Skibbereen.Eamonn Boland & Francis Regan are expected to debut their newly acquired 06 version of the Ford Focus and will start at 4. The crew recently competed in the World Rally Championship round in Spain, as did Welsh driver Gareth Jones with Mallow based co-driver David Moynihan who start at 5. These will be followed by last year’s No 1 seeds Ray Breen and Andrew Purcell. Breen lead the Fastnet rally last year until he slipped off the road for 10 minutes. Top local seed is Denis Cronin with Helen Sullivan calling the notes in the Subaru Impreza WRC. They will be followed by James O’Sullivan, who finished as highest placed local driver on last year’s event.
The Patterson’s National Group N award has already been decided for 2007, so the main focus for the top seeds in the production category will be local honour or shakedown for Rally Ireland. The local crew of Kevin & Martin Kelleher who won the recent Baltinglass Mini Stages Rally are top Group N seeds followed by last year’s Group N winner on the West Cork Hotel Fastnet rally Willie Fannin.Third group N car on the entry list is another young Norwegian driver, Eyvind Brynildsen, who has been competing in selected rounds of the world rally championship in his Lancer Evo 9 this year. The 19 year old finished 2nd in Group N on both the Norway and Spanish rounds of the World Championship, and is also competing on Rally Ireland.Leading the 2 wheel drive challenge is Brian O’Mahony in his Clio Super 1600, followed by the Opel Manta of Anthony O’Halloran. Starting after SS4 will be the Historic and Junior competitors.
The Rally will start at 8:30am on Sunday Morning, the 29th of October from the NCT Centre in Skibbereen. The event will be decided over 7 stages with the cars returning to the NCT centre for service after special stages 2 & 5.The winning crew are expected at the finish ramp at the West Cork Hotel @ 4:30pmThe official rally programme will be available in Newsagents and Petrol stations in West Cork from Saturday 20th of October, and will contain full colour maps and stage details.
Event Timetable:
Start & Service: NCT Centre First Car Due. 8:30
Stage 1 Kilcoe 9.3 Kms F.C.D. 9:19 Stage 2 Mount Kid 20 Kms F.C.D. 9:49
Service 1 F.C.D. 10:25
Stage 3 Nowen Hill 19 Kms F.C.D. 11:23 Stage 4 Mealagh Valley 19.3 Kms F.C.D. 12:09 Stage 5 Mount Kid 20 Kms F.C.D. 13:02
Service 2 F.C.D. 13:39
Stage 6 Nowen Hill 19 Kms F.C.D. 14:47Stage 7 Mealagh Valley 19.3 Kms F.C.D. 15:33
Finish Ramp - The West Cork Hotel F.C.D. 16.30
Top 20 Entries: 1 Eugene Donnelly Paul Kiely Skoda Fabia 2 Andreas Mikkelsen Ole Floene Ford Focus 3 Tim McNulty Eugene O'Donnell Subaru Impreza S11 4 Eammon Boland Francis Regan Ford Focus 5 Gareth Jones David Moynihan Ford Focus 6 Ray Breen Andrew Purcell Ford Focus 7 Kevin Barrett Barry Goodman Subaru Impreza WRC S11 8 Melvyn Evans Sean Mullally Subaru Impreza WRC S9 9 P.J. McGrath Damien Morrissey Subaru Impreza S9 10 Denis Cronin Helen O'Sullivan Subaru Impreza 11 James OSullivan Brian Duggan Subaru Impreza S9 12 Sean Gallagher Enda Sherry Subaru Impreza S8 wrc 14 Eoin Doyle TBA Subaru S9 15 George Tracey Jane O'Connor Peugeot 206 WRC 16 Kevin Kelleher Martin Kelleher Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 17 Willie Fannin Paddy Robinson Subaru Impreza 18 Eyvind Brynildsen TBA Mitsubishi Evo 9 19 Alan Ring Adrian Deasy Subaru Impreza 20 Keith Cronin Anthony O'Conaill Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7
