JONNY GREER IS NI CHAMPION
Callum Devine may have dominated the Go Power Tour of the Sperrins Rally last month, but third place was more than enough to insure Jonny Greer became the 2021 Northern Ireland Rally Champion.
For Greer and co-driver Kirsty Riddick in their Citroen C3 R5 it was their second NI Championship. The pair had previously won the title back in 2017.
The Sperrins event was a great success for organisers Magherafelt and District Motor Club. The final round of the Championship was the first closed-road rally to be held in Northern Ireland this year. Three repeated stages were the order of the day; Dens Folly (4.77 miles), Davagh and Straw Mountain (7.25 miles). The weather was very changeable with fog early on and then heavy rain for the second passes.
My job as part of the safety plan was to cover a mid-point radio on SS2/5 Davagh. The longest stage at 7.33 miles, Davagh is a well known stage used many times on various rallies over the years. This time, despite delays caused by spectators moving around, both test ran smoothly apart from a huge accident before my location on the second run. Philip Allen and his “celebrity” co-driver Eugene Donnelly slid off at high speed, clipped a telephone pole and rolled into a field. They had been just 4.9 seconds off the rally lead at the time in their Fiesta R5 and were on a charge. Thankfully neither crew were injured.
It was good to see people out watching rallying again after all our problems of the past 18 months. 100 cars started the rally and there were 82 finishers. As I said Callum Devine won the event. The Co.Derry man and co-driver Brian Hoy were in the same Ford Fiesta Rally2 which took them to victory on the recent Cork 20 and Donegal Harvest rallies. Running at number 105 Devine was a late entry. Second place went to Desi Henry and Niall Burns in their Hyuandai i20 R5. They were 34.7 seconds down. Jonny Greer was third and Peadar Hurson fourth in his Fiesta WRC.
Defending champion Stephen Wright finished back in eighth place on the Sperrins but the Fiesta R5 driver still managed to claim second place this year seven points behind Greer. Completing the 2021 NI Championship podium, Peadar Hurson was third. Barry Morris won the 2WD category with his Darrian T90 GTR.
LOOKING BACK
20 Years Ago........2001
Nine of us BMMC/BRMC members attended the Network Q Rally of Great Britain. This was the final round of the 2001 WRC. The rally was based in Cardiff and we would marshal a sector on three of the seventeen stages from Friday 23rd through to Sunday 25th November.
Colin McRae was leading the World Championship, one point ahead of Tommi Makinen and two clear of Richard Burns. Carlos Sainz had an outside chance of the title but needed to win Rally GB and the other three contenders not score at all.
Makinen retired his Mitsubishi on SS1 and then McRae and Nicky Grist had a huge accident on our Friday stage while leading the rally.
We were at junction 12 of SS4 Rhondda, but McRae retired one mile before that. His Ford Focus barrel rolled four times flat in fifth gear and was destroyed. Luckily neither Colin nor Grist were injured. Next car on the road was Richard Burns. Having just seen what happened to Colin, Richard briefly lost concentration and spun at our location loosing a few seconds. I still have the broken tail-light of the Subaru which made contact with a log pile. The biggest incident we had was when Belgian driver Francois Duval rolled his little Ford Puma into a small river. Both crew members were extracted without any injuries.
Following McRae’s dramatic exit, it was just a matter of Richard Burns pacing himself and staying on the road for the rest of the rally. The Englishman was on course to win the World Championship on Sunday, providing he finished Rally GB in the top four.
On day two Saturday we covered a sector on SS11 Brechfa. We were based in Swansea so all the South Wales stages were within a half-hour journey. The Brechfa stage was cancelled following an accident prior to our location. Carlos Sainz who was running in fifth place, crashed his works Ford Focus into a marshals car and spectators at a junction.14 people were injured, two seriously.
Only 50 cars made it through to Sunday’s final stage SS17 Margam Park 2. For the first time all weekend, it was wet and windy as we drove though the 28 kilometre stage to our allocated sector, junction 17 near the finish. Apart from dealing with lots of spectators we had an incident free day.
Marcus Gronholm won the rally and his Peugeot 206 team-mate Harri Rovanpera was second. Richard Burns and Robert Reid finished third in their Subaru Impreza S7 ‘01 which was enough to make sure of the 2001 World Rally Championship. Further down the order, Ulstermen Naill McShea and Michael Orr in their Citroen Saxo finished second behind future World Champion Sebastien Loeb in the Super 1600 class.
LOOKING FORWARD
The 2022 Northern Ireland Rally Championship is scheduled to run with five tarmac events. Kirkistown in February, Bishopscourt in March, The Dogleap in May, Tyrone Stages in June and the Down Rally in July.
The 2022 ANICC Gravel Rally Challenge is due to consist of three events. Fivemiletown in February then the Lakeland Stages and Bushwhacker in September.
The UAC Circuit of Ireland Rally, a round of the Irish Tarmac Championship, is planned for the Easter weekend 15th-16th April 2022.
Although the Ulster Rally is pencilled in for 19th-20th August 2022, it is widely believed that this event will not take place. Instead we expect the World Rally Championship to visit these shores at that time.
A “To-Be-Announced” tarmac rally is presently listed for 18th-21st August on the 13-round 2022 WRC calendar. Reliable sources say that confirmation of Rally Northern Ireland taking place on that date will happen next month when the World Motor Sport Council meets on 15th December to ratify the 2022 calendar. I just hope that (fingers crossed) those sources are correct. It would appear that the required funding is now in place to allow a Belfast-based WRC event to happen.
Rally Diary
Sat. 20th November.
Modern Tyres Ulster Rally
The seventh and final round of the 2021 British Rally Championship. Organised by the NI Motor Club. Based in Newry Co.Down with Rally HQ at the Mourne Country Hotel and service park nearby at the Carnbane Industrial Estate. Originally planned for mid August, until COVID-19 intervened, the new date could mean rain, sleet or ice on the challenging tarmac lanes of Ulster.
We will be out in force as usual covering stage marshalling, rescue, recovery, refuelling areas, timekeeping and radio. There are nine closed-road stages (3 repeated 3 times) in counties Down and Armagh. Lamp pods will be needed because the third loop of stages will probably finish in darkness.
As I write 109 entries have been received including almost 30 of the top British and Irish R5 competitors. With regard to the British Rally Championship, Welshmen Osian Pryce and VW Polo GTI R5 team-mate Matt Edwards go head-to-head for the title. A maximum of 120 cars are allowed to start. The seeded entry list is due to appear on rallyscore.net on Tuesday 9th November. Rally Guide 2 will appear on the ulsterrally.com website from Wednesday 3rd November.
If rumours are to be believed, this might be the last Ulster Rally for awhile. Personally I have only missed one or two since 1979 which was my first marshalling experience.
Interestingly the calendar for the 2022 British Rally Championship reveals that for the first time in 21 years the series will not visit the island of Ireland. In fact the BRC has been running for 64 years and 2000 was the ONLY year an Irish round didn’t take place.
Fri. 19th - Sun. 21st November.
Rally Monza (Italy)
Obviously we will not be involved in this one, but on the same weekend as the Ulster Rally, the 2021 WRC finishes in Italy with Rally Monza. After his second place in Spain, Elfyn Evans is just 17 points behind Sebastien Ogier. The Toyota team-mates go head to head for the title. Last year Evans was leading the championship going to Monza (which again was the final round) but Elfyn ultimately lost the title to Ogier when he slid off the road and into retirement on an icy road test.
With a maximum of 30 points available for the rally win and top power stage points, the little Welshman will be looking for revenge this time out. On the other hand this will be Sebastien Ogier’s last full-time drive so he would love to lift an eighth World crown. Ogier will only take part in selected events for Toyota in the new hybrid WRC next year.
The rally uses the famous Monza Grand Prix race circuit and its perimeter roads plus challenging closed-road mountain stages to the north of the circuit. Unlike last year spectators will be allowed to attend. If you want to follow the action live stage-by-stage log on to WRC+ (if you can afford it) or alternatively catch the hour-long highlights on ITV4 the following week.
