MOTOR SPORT/Weekend Preview: Kevin Lynch is fast emerging as the new force in Irish rallying, following in the wheel tracks of fellow Derry driver Eugene Donnelly.
Lynch, from Dungiven, currently leads the National Forestry Championship, previously won by Donnelly, and followed up his third place in the Donegal International with victory on the Tour of the Sperrins and again in last Sunday's Dunlop National Championship event in Waterford.
Lynch and co-driver Francis Regan are the top-seeded crew for Sunday's Monaghan Rally, round five of the National Forestry Championship, which they lead on 78 points, 22 clear of Brian Murphy/Joe Downey, with Pat Norris and Declan Timulty four points further back.
Murphy will not compete in Monaghan as he is co-driving with Austin McHale in Scotland. As he has already missed a round he is effectively out of contention for championship honours. Pat Norris is seeded number two.
The Monaghan event is based at Seán McDermotts GAA Club at Three Mile House, with stages at Rockcorry, Golan and Knockatallan forests.
Following his disappointment in Donegal, Andrew Nesbitt is going for a hat-trick of wins on the Jim Clark Memorial Rally, which starts today from Kelso.
The 22 stages are over 160 miles of closed roads in Berwickshire, the home of 1963 and 1965 Formula one champion Jim Clark, and an estimated 70,000 spectators are expected to attend, which is a round of both the British and Irish Pirelli Tarmac Rally Championships.
Nesbitt is the top seed, followed by Jonny Milner, Austin McHale, Eugene Donnelly, David Higgins, Derek McGarrity and Eamonn Boland. Milner and Higgins are the two leading British championship contenders, whilst McGarrity, on 50 points, leads McHale, with 40, and Donnelly, on 39, after four rounds of the Irish series. Other Irish drivers competing in Scotland are Eamonn Boland, Tim McNulty, Paddy White, Aaron McHale, Rory Galligan, Roy White, James Foley,Willie Fannin, Dessie Keenan, Colm Murphy, Pat Kearney and Barry Horan.
The club drivers take over Mondello Park on Sunday for what promises to be an exciting afternoon of grassroots racing, far from the ballyhoo of the GTs, British Touring cars and so-called Super Race Sundays. Sadly, for the first time since 1934, there will be no Leinster Trophy meeting. The great heritage of past Leinster Trophy races was jettisoned by awarding this most prestigious Irish motor racing trophy to the winner of a British championship Formula BMW support race, not a special Leinster Trophy race, at the recent British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) meeting.
