HEADS FOR THE HILLS OF DONEGAL
This weekend round four of the 2010 Citroën Racing Trophy (CRT) Ireland heads to the North West for the Donegal International Rally. Once again there is an impressive line-up of eight Citroën C2 R2 Max’s for what is also the fourth round of the Citroën Irish Tarmac Rally Championship.
First C2 seed is Dublin car trader Robert Barrable. Robert lies second in the CRT Ireland standings, and leads the CRT UK series after finishing an impressive 9th overall and top 2wd on the all tarmac Jim Clark International Rally in Scotland. He has two wins a piece in the UK and Irish C2 series, having won the Circuit of Ireland and Killarney rounds of the CRT Ireland series, finishing an equally impressive 8th overall in Killarney. This certainly bodes well for improving his number 49 seeding in Donegal, and bodes well for his championship, as leader Martin McCormack has elected to miss this fourth round, heading instead to the European Championship Ypres Rally in two weeks time. Robert has won 9000€ so far this season from the Irish series alone!
Third in the CRT Ireland points and second C2 on the road will be Donegal’s Adrian McElhinney. The Donegal town driver, last year’s Irish champion, is really looking forward to his home International. “Although it’s close to home, I haven’t actually done this rally that often. I did it in 2008, when it was cancelled, and three or four years before that, and we broke a drive-shaft. Indeed I think I broke a drive-shaft on it before that too, so it hasn’t been the luckiest of events to date, but hopefully we can change that this year.” Adrian was busy starting the three day intensive recce of the stages, and is making his own pace-notes from scratch. “It’s about the third or fourth time I’ve made my own notes and they are getting better all the time. They are hard stages to make notes for, as you can be on very narrow twisty sections, then turn onto wide flat out sections where the racing lines are important. If it stays hot and dry it will be fantastic, but very hard on the transmissions and the car in general for three days over the Donegal roads.” At the time of writing Adrian was reccing the Atlantic Drive test, one of the all time Donegal classics. Knockalla, Port Lake, Fanad are just some of the other classics on this twenty stage event, which also has a new spectator stage in Buncrana town at 5pm on Friday evening. The C2’s will be watched by thousands screaming through the streets, on a stage that was last used in 1981.
Shane Buckley is at number 51 behind Adrian and he is fourth in the championship. Two third places on the Galway and Killarney events, have shown that the young driver has good promise, and he set some very fast stage times when the leaders were having their frantic race in Killarney.
At 53, Limerick’s Mark Sheehan, comes to Donegal on the back of an excellent showing on the Irish National, Circuit of Munster event. Mark lay 8th overall and led the two wheel runners, including the much more powerful MK2 Escort brigade in the 1600 C2 R2 Max on the event, until a fractured wiring loom caused his retirement on the final stages. He debuted his Citroën Racing built Max in Killarney with a fine fifth place, and with co-driver Anthony O’Connail could be one to watch in Donegal.
There is a large gap in the seeding until the next bunch of C2’s starting at number 96 with Donegal’s Joe McGonigle, followed by Kieran Daly, Desi Henry and David Carney. Several of these drivers will be applying for re-seeding as they don’t want issues with other cars to affect the results of the CRT Ireland race. Joe finished the third C2 on the recent CRT UK Jim Clark International rally, and with his suspension also rebuilt he’s very much looking forward to this event with co-driver Niall Burns. Cork’s Kieran Daly was another driver to impress on the Circuit of Munster, with some fast stage times. He actually retired after the first test with a broken suspension joint, but re-joined as zero car to record some fast times, and with Limerick co-driver Frank Curtin is looking forward to having a real attack at this event. He’s found the C2 R2 Max a welcome change from his old S1600 Puma.
For 20 year old Portglenone driver Desi Henry it’s his first outing in the CRT Ireland with his ex Jason Pritchard C2 R2 Max, having changed from the Fiesta series. Desi has already contested two Northern Ireland Rally Championship rounds in the car, finishing third in class on the Tour of the Sperrins, and seventh in class after some niggling troubles on the Mourne Rally. “I really have enjoyed the car so far, but I have a bit to learn with it, and throw left hand drive into the bargain. Things were going well for us on the Mourne Rally, we were setting faster times, but a fuel pipe blockage dropped us many minutes. We are looking forward to this event for sure and our first experience in the Citroën Racing Trophy.” Desi will be co-driven by John Rowan. Finally David Carney is the final C2 R2 Max, and he is getting faster by the event in his immaculate C2 Max.
On the reserve list however is Circuit of Ireland winner, 19 year old Omagh charger Mark Donnelly. Mark is fresh from a second place finish on the CRT UK Jim Clark event, and will be hoping to get a run in this weekend’s fourth round. With 70,000 spectators expected to flock to Donegal to watch the event, it will be a magnificent fourth round for Citroën Irish Tarmac Championship, as over 150 cars start from Letterkenny on Friday lunchtime.
