MOTOR SPORT: Eugene Donnelly is the number one seed in the weekend's First Choice Flooring sponsored Galway International Rally but the reigning tarmac rally champion will have to extract the maximum performance from his ageing Toyota Corolla WRC to fend off the powerful Subaru challenge of Tim McNulty, Derek McGarrity and Andrew Nesbitt. Seeded five and six, respectively, are Austin MacHale and Eamonn Boland in Ford Focus WRCs.
They are followed by Kevin Lynch in another quick Subaru and national champion Ray Breen in a Focus WRC. The talented list also includes Gareth-Glyn Jones, Peadar Hurson, Maurice Gass, John Joe Fleming, Melvyn Evans, Paddy White and Hugh Martin Doherty.
Donnelly is in cautiously confident mode, but reckons McNulty will be the man to beat in this year's Pirelli Tarmac Championship of which the Galway event is the opening round. Austin MacHale is a six times Galway winner, and will give it his best shot over the challenging stages of the West. His son Gareth is not competing as his Ford Focus WRC is on the way to Mexico for round three of the World Championship. He finished a brilliant 16th in his first WRC event, the recent Monte Carlo Rally.
In the fierce battle for Group N honours the protagonists are Garry Jennings, Séamus Leonard, John McGlaughlin, Roy White, James Foley, Willie Fannin, Alan Ring, Kevin Kelleher and James Cullen. As well as 149 crews listed for the main rally, 22 are entered in the historic section, plus 21 juniors.
After the morning start in Eyre Square, tomorrow's stages cover 105 kms in the Portumna, Gurtymadden and Eyrecourt area of east Galway, with central service in Portumna mart. On Sunday, there are 140 kms of stages around Ballinasloe, Caltra and Ballyfa, service in Ballinasloe.
In a crowded calendar some date clashes are inevitable, but it really seems ludicrous that while thousands of motorsport fans will be attracted to the Galway area, round one of the most exciting ever Irish Rallycross Championship also takes place at Mondello Park this Sunday.
A collaboration between the Irish and British Championships will see top British drivers contesting the Irish rounds, whilst traditionally it has been the Irish contingent who travelled to British events, with great success. Top British drivers committed to the Irish series include champion Pat Doran, Mark Watson and Mike Manning who will faces native competition from Dermot Carnegie, John McCluskey, George Tracey, Christopher Evans and Helmut Holfeld.
WEEKEND FIXTURES: Saturday - Galway MC, First Choice Flooring Galway International rally, starts Eyre Square, Galway, 8.40am; MEC, Sporting Trial, Kilruddery, Bray, Co Wicklow, 11.30am. Sunday - Galway International Rally, re-starts 8.30am; Co Kildare MC, Rallycross, Mondello Park, noon.
The MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi continued his erratic progress in Formula One with an incident-filled day at Valencia yesterday.
The Italian's first proper Ferrari test has been littered with spins, including one just a few turns into his stint behind the wheel on Tuesday which ended his participation.
He continued in that vein yesterday, spinning his 2004-specification Ferrari five times on his way to the 12th fastest time.
Fernando Alonso was fastest for the second straight day for Renault, just quicker than Jenson Button, whose day was punctuated by a Honda engine failure.
Mercedes' engine troubles continued with McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya losing four hours as a result of yet another blow-up. He ended the day 14th.
Elsewhere yesterday, Ferrari confirmed they had poached Nicholas Tombazis from McLaren. He takes over as chief designer on March 1st. Design chief Rory Byrne will stand aside to become a consultant.
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