Hard-won affair in Tralee for Alan Ring and Adrian Deasy combo

Although they led the Tralee-based Fels Point Circuit of Kerry Rally from the start, the Kerry/Cork duo of Alan Ring and Adrian Deasy in the Munster Joinery liveried S12B Subaru WRC had to push hard through the final stage to ensure victory.

With all but one of the fastest stage times, they finished 12.6 seconds ahead of the Antrim/Kerry partnership of Derek McGarrity and Diarmuid Falvey (Subaru). Welsh driver Steve Wood (Subaru WRC) and his Limerick co-driver Keith Moriarty were just a fraction of a second further behind in third.

Ring was quickest on the opening stage where the general consensus was that the stage was quite gravelly, the Castleisland native set a time that was 2.9 seconds better than second-placed Steve Wood, who stalled his Subaru WRC at a hairpin. Antrim’s Derek McGarrity was third — 1.2 seconds further behind and reckoned he was somewhat too cautious. Daniel Cronin occupied fourth and although he was only a fraction of a second behind McGarrity, the Ballylickey driver wasn’t happy with the set-up of his Subaru WRC, he spun and stalled on the stage.

The Subaru pair of Paddy McVeigh and Kevin Barrett rounded off the top six, the latter had transmission woes on the second stage that was subsequently cancelled due to an incident close to the finish when two children were injured. They were transferred to hospital.

Cahir’s Don Keating was seventh with Mike Quinn (Escort) the top two-wheel drive exponent — 5.1 seconds ahead of Paul Purtill (Escort). Their rivals Ed O’Callaghan and Ed Synan, both in Ford Escorts, had a troubled opening stage. O’Callaghan spun and lost 15 seconds while Synan dropped some 90 seconds when the throttle bracket snapped.

Out on the repeat of the stages, Ring punched in the best times and increased his lead to 4.5 seconds. It possibly could have been more.

“I messed up with the launch control at the start of stage three. Then had a moment on the Desmond’s Grave stage where I had the car on the grass for a brief moment,” he said.

Second-placed Wood had an untroubled run but was still reflecting on his opening stage misdemeanour. McGarrity — six seconds further behind in third — was pragmatic about his situation, commenting, “I just have to go quicker.”

Having softened the suspension, Cronin was more at ease with his Subaru WRC as he continued to hold fourth position. McVeigh and Barrett completed the top six — the latter opting to use fifth gear as little as possible due to a broken cog.

On his first event in over a year and a half, Barry Ryan in his two-litre Escort was seventh and leader of the Modified category, his only issue was that of gear selection that was sorted at the Tralee service park. His rival Mike Quinn was 17.1 seconds behind. The final places in the top ten were annexed by Paul Purtill (Ford Escort) and Don Keating (Subaru).

Elsewhere, Ed O’Callaghan rolled his Escort on its side when he clipped a square right hand bend on the fourth stage, he lost over two minutes.

On the penultimate stage, Wood cut the deficit to just 3.5 seconds while McGarrity, with the best stage time, was only 8.6 seconds behind rally leader Ring. On the final stage Ring pulled out all the stops to ensure victory, McGarrity edged out Wood for second spot, the latter admitting to overdriving as he tried to reel in rally leader Ring.

Cronin took fourth and Barrett edged ahead of McVeigh to secure fifth. Ryan took victory in the Modified section and Tipperary’s Pat O’Connell (Mitsubishi) had an untroubled run to win the Group N category.

Meanwhile, in the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park, Portadown’s Colin Turkington (Volkswagen CC) netted two podiums — he won the second race having finished second in the first of the three encounters.