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Round 2 Birr Stages Rally
MAHON MAGNIFICANT
Round two of the Rory Galligan Rally Irish 205 Challenge took place on the Birr motor clubs Roscrea stages rally last Sunday. Nine crews made the start, with three notable non starters of Kerrill Waters, Paul Conlon and Damien Mc Guaran all on the events reserve list. What has now become the norm on these I205C events, stage one chaos, happened again with no 1 seed, the Mayo motor club junior champion Matthew Murphy/ John Ryan going off just after the halfway point, and being hit by the following car to boot. Also in trouble was Norman Dunne/ David Collins who picked up a stage maximum when they went off and could not get back on for over twenty minutes. Barry Mahon/ Ollie o Grady set the fastest time, 8 seconds up on DJ Browne/ Torloc O Reilly with Kenneth Keyes/ Tom Maguire 19 seconds back. Dermot Mc Neill/ Patrick Lowbridge, Donal Crooke/ Mark Feeley and Craig O Rourke/ Diarmund Murphy all taking it a little to cautious in the changeable weather conditions and dropping time to the top three. Stage two was cancelled so battle resumed on stage three, but gone out was Niall Lynch/ Derek Malone with engine trouble for the second rally running. Mahon again topped the timesheets, this time 10 seconds up on from Keyes who was 5 up on Crooke who had finally woken up. O Rourke and Mc Neill were separated by just a second, with Dunne again losing time visiting the ditches. The biggest loser was Browne who went off when his car filled with oil smoke. Further time was lost sorting the problem on the stage. Mahon continued to set the pace 8 second up on Keyes who was up at the mid point of the stage only to spin at a hairpin junction later in the stage. Browne was back on the case just 1 second back with Crooke a second slower and McNeill a further 3 seconds back, complaining of a down on power engine. At the second service, Mahon lead Keyes by 37 seconds with Crooke in third. The rally moved to two new stages for the afternoon, and this saw Crooke set his first fastest time in the I205C, 1 second up on Keyes who was 2 seconds quicker than Browne with Mahon a further 2 seconds down. Mc Neill, Dunne and O Rourke just could not match this pace and dropped further back. Mahon returned to the top of the times on stage six with a vengeance, taking 15 seconds off Keyes and a huge 29 seconds from Crooke, both cursing their choice of tyres. Out of the rally went Dunne who rolled at a snails pace but could not get his car back on its wheels. Also out with electrical trouble was Browne after his best showing to date. Keyes pushed hard through stages seven and eight, taking 6 second from Mahon, but it would not be enough to shake the Dublin man from taking his first and well deserved win in the I205C by 41 seconds. Keyes finished comfortable in second with Mc Neill overhauling Crooke for third on the final stage when the lack of a map light in caused trouble reading the pacenotes.
Mahon also won class ten and finished in 49th place overall.
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