Plastic Bags.ie Competitors Rally to Ravens Rock: By: Pat Harnett Sports Media: With two exciting rounds of the Plastic Bags.ie Southern 4 Rally championship completed things are building up nicely. And for those who want to be in contention at the end of the season this Raven’s Rock Rally in the sunny South East (hopefully!!) will be very important. Top Ten Drivers: Heading to Waterford and Wesley Patterson is the man to catch in his Escort. Picking up very good points on both the Saturday and Sunday of the West Cork and the Rally of the Lakes, including top points on the latter Wesley tops the standings on 149 points. He has an 8 point lead over Stephen Carey in his Honda Civic and both of these have pulled away a little from the field. Mark Nagle (Subaru) on 128 points and Donagh Kelly (Focus WRC) on 121 will be need big finishes in the upcoming rounds to close that gap as we get down to the business end of the season. Indeed Kelly was on a great run and topping the charts before his non finish in Killarney. At present Shane Stanley (107) rounds out the top 5 in his Honda Civic while Ed Twomey in his Fiesta R2 is the only other driver with over 100 points as he sits 6th on 103. Brian O’Keeffe will be cursing his non finish in West Cork as he has 99 points. He scored over 30 on the other days and a similar result on the Sunday would have put him 3rd but such are the vagaries of rallying. Darragh O’Riordan has been the model of consistent inconsistency! The Fiesta WRC driver has scored 38 points on the Saturday in West Cork and Killarney but with non-finishes on the Sundays only added 1 point on each day. Charlie Hickey has his legendary in 9th after missing the West Cork while Jason Ryan in his Starlet rounding out the top ten. Co-Driver’s Standings: Johnny Baird leads the co-driver’s standings with the first lady to feature in the standings, Breda O’Driscoll. These are followed closely by Nollaig Breen. Kevin Flannagan and Liam Fouhy complete the top 5. Chasing them are Sean Hayde, Derek Tobin, Alistair Wylie, Tony McDaid and James O’Brien as the battle for the prestigious co-driver’s title is going full throttle. There are not many sports where male and female stars complete on a level playing field (or should say level road!). But rallying is one where this happens and with Lisa O’Dowd in 11th and Helen Duggan that’s 3 in the top 15. Class Leaders: A look at the Classes leader’s shows Brian O’Mahony (Class 2), Stephen Carey (Class 3), Brian O’Keeffe (4), Ed Twomey (6), Donagh Kelly (8), Shane Stanley (9), Gordon Draper (10), Jason Ryan (11), Cyril Wharton (12), Daniel Lucey (13), Wesley Patterson (14), Alan O’Riordan (15) and Mark Nangle (20). Historic’s: George Swanton leads the Historic section in his Escort with Kevin Barry in the premium seat in the co-drivers category. Juniors: In all rallies the Junior section is hotly contested and in the Plastic Bags.ie Championship this is the same. Andrew Beamish leads in his Nova from Eric Calnan’s Peugeot 106. It’s a Civic ‘tailback’ after these with Kenneth Quirke, Mark Hurley and Chris Brady making up the top 5. Cillian Crowley, Seamus Skinner, Jenny Warren, Dylan Coffey and Lisa O’Dowd are the top 5 in the co-driver’s standings. Raven’s Rock Rally: All those involved in the Plastic Bags.ie Southern 4 Championship wish the Carrick on Suir Motor Club and Clerk of the Course Billy Collins a safe and super Rally. With a start in Waterford City Centre and some classic stages it promises to be another exciting weekend of rallying.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 13:48:43 +0000
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