Final Report

Gareth MacHale capped off a faultless weekend by taking the 2010 Safety Direct Galway International Rally. MacHale was consistently quick all weekend and managed to hold off the 20 year old sensation Craig Breen, who set some astonishing times in the brand new Ford Fiesta S2000. Aaron MacHale finished third to give the MacHale Family two podium finishes. Aaron went into the last stage trailing Alastair Fisher by 9 seconds, but a hard charge saw Aaron take a whopping 15 seconds from Alastair to beat the young Fermanagh man by 6 seconds. Kevin Barrett had a good showing to round off the top 5.

Saturday morning’s opening stages threw frost and fog at the competitors. British Rally Champion, Keith Cronin, was first out of the traps to take the first stage, but his rally ended on stage two when his lancer left the road. To the delight of the Galway spectators, Keith returned to action on the Sunday run, and set some stage winning times. Cronin was not the only high profile name to retire early on Saturday Morning. Fellow Mitsubishi drivers Jonny Greer and Gary Jennings also saw their rally end on day one, but like Keith, both returned for the Sunday Run. The Overnight Lead was held By Gareth MacHale. The Dubliner had a comfortable cushion of over a minute from Craig Breen, with Tim McNulty a further 30 seconds back. However Tim’s Charge ended on stage 13 when his gearbox broke. It was hard luck for Tim who was enjoying a good battle with Breen for second place. Sunday’s stages saw little change in the leader board with most crews happy to keep their cars between the stonewalls.

In the end it was left to Gareth to bring his Focus WRC back to Oranmore in one Piece and bag maximum points in the Citroen Irish Tarmac Rally Championship. With both Craig Breen and Alastair Fisher receiving overall awards, the Group N trophy went to Alan Ring and Adrian Deasy in their Munster Joinery Lancer. The national rally was a one-horse show all weekend with the young Monaghan duo of Daniel McKenna and Andrew Grennan winning by almost 3 minutes. Galway also held the first round of the lucrative Citroen Racing Trophy. Current British C2 champion Marty McCormack was the early leader, but a series of punctures on Sunday handed Dubliner Robert Barrable the win. In the Fiesta Sporting Trophy, Stephen Wright and Paul McGee never put a wheel wrong all weekend and took a comfortable win. Stephen and Paul also finished 19th overall to round off a great Weekend. The Historic’s was won by Local man Ray Cunningham while veteran Martin Ward took the Post Historic prize. Damien Whoriskey took the junior prize.

After Galway, the focus switches to the legendary Circuit of Ireland rally over the Easter Weekend where Gareth will look to extend his lead in the Championship.

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With the 2010 Safety Direct Galway International Rally fast approaching, the village of Oranmore is preparing for an action packed first weekend in February. Preparations are progressing at a frantic pace with the date for the official launch to be announced shortly. As a result of the severe flooding that hit south Galway before the Christmas, rally officials have been busy over the festive period putting the finishing touches to route revisions and revised road closing applications in preparation for the big event.

The one thing that is for certain is that the village of Oranmore will be alive and kicking for the rally weekend. Friday night’s ceremonial start will take place in the heart of the village, while centralised service on both the Saturday and Sunday will take place in the Oran Precast grounds. Sunday evening will see the winning crews return to Oranmore village for the finish ramp ceremony.

Top entrants so far for the opening round of the Irish Tarmac Championship are Tim Mc Nulty and David Moynihan, in their Subaru S12B, Galway Summer Rally winners Kevin Barrett and Sean Mullally in their S11 and local crew JJ Fleming and David Hogan in another Subaru, while massive interest will be focused on multi award-winning Craig Breen, who will give the brand new Ford Fiesta S2000 its World debut on tarmac. This new car is the most important to be developed by M-Sport in recent years as it will form the basis of the works Ford WRC challenger for 2011.
The new Citroen Racing challenge is proving to be very popular with competitors. The series, which consists entirely of Citroen C2 R2s, is one of the premier single-make rally series in the country. The Galway entry is headed by 2009 British C2 champion, Martin McCormack.

The early Group N entrants include former national Group N champion Alan Ring and former works Peugeot driver, Gary Jennings, both in Mitsubishi Evo 9’s.

Early local Modified entries include Tom Flaherty and Patrick Curley, as well as Tommy Flanagan and Leanne Flanagan both in Ford Escort Mk2s. Interest is also high among Honda EK 4 drivers, who will all be keen to take home the Galway Motor Club Honda Challenge prize. With 10 entries being received within hours of the entries opening, it will make for an exciting competition.

The Safety Direct Galway International Rally will run from the 5th to the 7th of February, with rally HQ again being located in the Clayton Hotel Ballybrit.

By: Martin Fallon

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Based on research carried out in a joint study of University of Ulster and the Sligo Institute of Technology, the average expenditure per overnight visitor and spectator of the Safety Direct Galway International Rally is €184, and €101 per day visitor. This is very significant in that the event takes place in February, well outside the tourist season.