Clare crews in Galway rally

THIS year’s Safety Direct Galway International Rally will take place this weekend and rally headquarters will be at the Clayton Hotel in Ballybrit.
The Galway International Rally has a proud history, which includes being the first ever round of the Irish Tarmac Championship in 1978. The rally is still the traditional season opener, drawing top competitors and huge crowds of spectators to Galway every year.
The event will run in a format that will help to significantly minimise costs for all competitors. All the stages, including a city-based “super special” will be contained in a compact one day format this Sunday.
The competitive element of the event will be run over 10 competitive special stages. The route will start on Sunday morning with the Dyke Road Spectator Stage in Galway City which was last run in 1998. There will be a centralised service area, followed by three stages, which will be repeated three times in the Headford area. There will be a ceremonial start in Galway City Centre on Saturday evening.
Due to the new format and reduced entry fee, entries have flooded in and currently stand at over 140, which should make this event a great start to the 2012 Irish Tarmac Rally championship.
Eugene Donnelly will be coming out of retirement for the 2012 Irish Tarmac Rally championship starting in Galway, where he will drive the WRC MINI.
There is a total of six Clare motor club crews entered for the rally.
Keith Naughton and Brendan Behan, Mk2 Escort are seeded at 91. The father and son crew of Tommy and Keith Flanagan are at 99. Niall O’Sullivan and Andrew Woods are next up at 119 in their Citroen C2 in the Junior section. Martin Casey and Elaine Ní Shé are at 129 in their Honda Civic and also entered in the junior section. Michael Fitzgibbon and Pa Baker have paired up in another Honda Civic and also entered in the junior section. Dermot Ryan has entered his newly build Class 9 Vauxhall Nova and is seeded at 135.