Quality Hotels West Cork Rally 2008
The 30th running of the Quality Hotels West Cork Rally takes place on St.Patricks weekend next, the 15th & 16th March. 151 cars will take to the start in the Clonakilty based event at 10am next Saturday morning. They will be joined by the Historic competitors on stage 5 while the juniors make their appearance from stage 13 onwards.
The number one seed Melvyn Evans with co-driver Sean Mullally have unfortunately had to withdraw as their ex Tim McNulty Impreza WRC S11 isn’t ready. This leaves number two seed Stephen Murphy with co-driver Micky Joe Morrissey to run first on the road in their Impreza WRC S12b. Stephen will be hoping for a better run than on Galway when he crashed on the fourth stage. Stephen won this event on his only previous appearance in 2000.
Donie O’Sullivan and Paul Nagle are at number 3 and will be hoping for a longer run than last year when they retired after the first stage. They will be back in an Impreza WRC S11 for this event. Liam McCarthy and Kieran Murphy are at 4 and will have one of the last Toyota Corolla WRCs ever built to play with. The car is a full tarmac spec built in Belgium so Liam should go very well.
Number 5 is leading Rallysport Cup competitor John Dalton and Gwynfor Jones in their ultra rapid Darrian T90 GTR. They have finished in the top six for the past three years and were the winners of the inaugural Bones O’Connor Modified Challenge in 2007. They will be favourites to retain that award this year, but they won’t have it easy as they are followed at 6 by Phil Collins and Derek Brannigan. Phil and his familiar red Escort were absent from West Cork last year so they make a welcome return to the rally for 2008.
The first of the Irish Mitsubishi Evo Challenge competitors is at 7 in the shape of Colm Murphy and Ger Loughrey. Colm hasn’t been in West Cork since 1999 when he thrilled the spectators in his yellow Twin Cam. The double Group N Tarmac Champion will be out to make up for not scoring points in Galway. Next up at 8 is former Billy Coleman award winner Owen Murphy with James O’Brien on the notes. They are also Evo mounted having taken second place points in Galway. Owen should go well in his home rally and will want to make up for the disappointment of having to pull out before the start of last years event with turbo problems.
Bob Fowden and Jerry Hynes were to be at number 9 but have had to withdraw from the event due to engine damage sustained in Tour of Epynt recently. At number 10 is Conor McCloskey making his first appearance on the event and driving a Focus WRC. Conor will have the vastly experienced Francis Regan on the notes.
Outside of the top ten lies J.J.Fleming in his Focus WRC at 11, top Group N driver Alan Ring at 12 followed by reigning 023 Tiles Southern 4 champion Kevin O’Donoghue at 14. Kevin is followed by the hard charging Wesley Patterson and Pat Donegan both in Escorts at 15 and 16. A pair of Darrians are at 17 & 18 in the hands of James Stafford and Washington James. Long time Welsh visitor Gwyndaf Evans is at 19 in his Mk2 Escort while Ashley Field is at back after a two year absence at 20 in his Darrian T90. Top front wheel drive competitors are Guy Woodcock in his Escort Maxi at 26 while Brian O’Mahony is at 29 in his Clio.
The first and second rounds of the C2 R2 Irish Cup take place in West Cork with Martin Laverty first Citroen on the road at number 76 followed by Marty McCormack and Jason Pritchard. The competition should be fierce here as there are twelve Citroens due to start. The full entry list is published currently on the events website www.westcorkrally.com.
The first competing car will leave Parc Ferme at the Model Railway Village on the Inchydoney Road at 10am on the Saturday morning with the winner due at the finish ramp in Clonakilty at 5.10pm on the Sunday. Rally Headquarters will be at the Quality Hotel and Leisure Centre who are the main sponsors of the event.
The stages for the event are as follows;
Saturday
Stage 1 & 3 Rossmore
Stage 2 & 4 Ballinascarthy
Stage 5 & 7 Sams Cross
Stage 6 & 8 Ardfield
Sunday
Stage 9 & 11 Clogagh
Stage 10 & 12 Inchybridge
Stage 13 & 15 Ring
Stage 14 & 16 Dunworley
Stage 17 Clonakilty
There will be service after every two stages with seventeen stages in all over the weekend. The service area for the weekend is in the grounds of Darrara Agricultural College. There will be a rally forum as usual in the Quality Hotel on Friday 14th at 9pm with Michael O’Carroll the MC for the night. Guests include Phil Collins, Colm Murphy & Brian Patterson among others.
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