The Triton Showers National Rally Championship reaches the penultimate point (Round 7) on Sunday next with the nine-stage Lady Gregory Hotel Galway Summer Rally that is based in Gort. The organisers, the Galway Motor Club with Mark Parsons as clerk of the course, have attracted an entry of 140 crews all of whom will be hoping to finish the event that takes place over the classic stages like Lough Cutra, the Black Road and Brady’s Yard. Servicing is in the mart complex in Gort.
Three times national champion and last year’s winner Monaghan’s Niall Maguire (Subaru WRC) heads the entry. The national championship regular is currently third in the Triton series and in line for yet another top three finish.
Outgoing champion Clonmel’s Roy White (Ford Fiesta WRC) will be keen to get that inaugural victory in a round of the series. There is also a sub-plot to his participation and while he has seen his own title and the Vard Memorial Trophy taken by Sam Moffett on the last round, the Sligo Rally, White’s co-driver James O’Brien will be determined to hold on to the Noel Smith Trophy for the top co-driver.
Opposition for that award comes from Sam Moffett’s co-driver Karl Atkinson, like O’Brien, he also hails from Cork. Atkinson missed Moffett’s opening round win in Nenagh and as Moffett is not competing on Sunday, Atkinson will co-drive for another Monaghan driver – Stephen Wright (Ford Fiesta R5) – his own brother-in-law. For Atkinson to deny O’Brien the co-driver’s title, he needs a top five finish in Galway and on the final round in Bantry (Fastnet Rally) at the end of October, irrespective of what O’Brien achieves with Roy White.
Sandwiched between White and Wright in Galway is former champion, Warrenpoint’s Peadar Hurson (Ford Fiesta WRC), who won the national championship title all of 25 years ago and will certainly be a contender for outright victory in Galway an event he won two seasons ago, driving a Subaru WRC.
The top ten also includes a plethora of Ford Escorts in the hands of Gary Kiernan, Brian Brogan, Frank Kelly and Wesley Patterson along with Shane Maguire (Mitsubishi) and the Subaru WRC of title sponsor Kevin Barrett.
Kiernan took second overall in last year’s rally; Donegal man Brogan was a contender for the rally.ie award and the Mk. 2 Champions Trophy very early in the season but a non-finish in Monaghan put an end to both bids. That should allow a strong contest between the quartet with Tyrone’s Frank Kelly and Lisburn’s Wesley Patterson all seeking a top finish.
Meanwhile, the Motorsport Safety Team Group N title rests between Monaghan’s
Shane Maguire and Cork’s David Guest, both in Mitsubishi Evo IX’s. That award is based on the highest placed overall finisher with the best six from eight events to count. Having dominated during the opening three rounds, Guest, who had a non-finish in the Circuit of Munster, now trails the ever improving Maguire by twelve points. However, with dropped scores taken into consideration, there certainly is a window of opportunity for Guest, who must finish ahead of Maguire in the Galway Summer to keep the series within his own grasp. Fellow Group N drivers Maynooth’s Paul Barrett (Subaru) and Dubliner Neil Tohill (Mitsubishi) could play a part in the destiny of the title.
Maynooth’s Kevin Barrett, in the Triton Showers liveried Subaru WRC has made only limited appearances in the current series as he concentrated on the efforts of his son Paul, on Sunday he will be aiming to finish higher than his seeded position of No. 10. The aforementioned David Guest occupies the number eleven berth.
Elsewhere, Ballylickey’s Daniel Cronin (Mitsubishi EvoIX), double Motorsport Safety Team Group N champion, Aidan Wray (Mitsubishi EvoIX) from Tyrone and Galwegian Tom Flaherty (Ford Escort) are also on the entry list.
Flaherty is the highest seeded local driver and will be co-driven by Martin Flynn, they will be aiming to win the coveted Conroy Cup, for the best Galway Motor Club crew, an award they won two years ago. Last year the award went to Paul Curley/Jason Ollernshaw. On this occasion, Pat Kelly/Jonathon Kelly (Subaru) and Ross Forde/Paul Horan (Ford Escort) are amongst the contenders.
Meanwhile, former Irish Forest Rally champions Pat O’Connell/Mark Wiley (Mitsubishi Evo X) are also competing.
In the Mk. 2 Champions Trophy, the top four, Eamonn McGuigan, Thomas O’Connell, Barry Morris and Mickey Conlon are all in action and with the series based on the best five results, there is still much to play for.
The Triton Showers Junior title is finely poised with Meath’s Brian Brady leading from Donegal’s Michael Boyle and Monaghan’s Johnny Treanor, all in Honda Civics. Brady is the current leader. The trio are amongst the nine crews that will start the Junior category of the Galway Summer Rally.
