Motor Sport/Galway Rally: Austin McHale will drive the latest Ford Focus RS WRC 03 in both the Pirelli Irish Tarmac Rally Championship and the Pirelli British Rally Championship.
The state-of-the-art rally car is run by Sanyo Air Conditioners and McHale Motorsport, and has the full backing of the Ford M-Sport Team.
The first outing of the year for McHale and his co-driver, Brian Murphy, is the weekend's First Choice Flooring Galway International Rally.
First on the stages will be Tapio Laukkenen.The Finnish flyer will have the number 13 on his Subaru WRC but will drive ahead of McHale, Eugene Donnelly in a Toyota Corolla WRC, Subaru drivers Derek McGarrity, Eamonn Boland and Michael Barrable, Maurice Gass in a Hyundai Accent WRC, Peadar Hurson (Subaru), Donie O'Sullivan (Ford Escort WRC), and three more Subaru drivers, Tim McNulty, JJ Fleming and Patrick Elliott. Denis Cronin is in a Toyota Celica in place of his familiar BMW.
The top 20 also includes Paddy White (Subaru), Roy White and Aaron McHale in Mitsubishi Evos, George Cullen and Ray Breen (Subarus), John Spain (Toyota Celica) and Noel Redmond (Hyundai Accent WRC).
McHale has won this event six times and holds the record of five Irish Tarmac Championships. Although this is his first outing in the Focus RS he is determined to get his double championship campaign off to a good start with maximum points.
Laukkenen will have his work cut out to stay the pace with McHale, reigning tarmac champion McGarrity and Boland, in particular. As McGarrity is not defending his tarmac title with a full campaign, he can go flat out for a win rather than settling for championship points. Donnelly won this event in 2002 and last year won both the Dunlop National Rally Championship and the Northern Ireland Championship.
The strong local entry includes JJ Fleming, John Spain, Mike Bird, Tom Halliday, Pat Kelly, Daragh Raftery, Frank Cunningham, Shane Quinn, John Murphy and Shane Cunniffee.
From tomorrow's 8 a.m. start in Eyre Square, the stages are in the Monivea, Attymon and Kilconnell area of East Galway, with central service in Ballinasloe. Sunday's stages run from Kinvara to Craughwell in South Galway, with service at Oranmore.
Armagh driver Andrew Nesbitt competes in this weekend's Rally Sweden in his Subaru Impreza WRC, round two of the World Rally Championship. Nesbitt has completed a successful winter of testing in Sweden and is confident of posting a good performance against the works teams.
POINTS STANDINGS (after the Monte Carlo Rally): Drivers - 1 Sebastien Loeb (Citroen Xsara WRC) 10pts ; 2 Markku Martin (Ford Focus RS) 8pts; 3 Francois Duval (Focus RS) 6pts; 4 Marcus Gronholm (Peugeot 307CC WRC) 5pts; 5 Freddy Loix (Peugeot) 4pts; 6 Gilles Panizzi (Mitsubishi Lancer WRC) 3pts. Manufacturers: 1 Ford 14pts; 2 Citroen 10pts; 3 Peugeot 9pts.
WEEKEND FIXTURES: Saturday and Sunday - Galway MC, First Choice Flooring International Galway International rally, starts Eyre Square 8.00 a.m.; restart 9.15 a.m.
