GALWAY is the place to be on the weekend of February 17th/18th. The gladiators of rallying will do battle in the Statoil sponsored Galway International event, which has all the promise of being the most exciting Irish rally for some time.
Frank Meagher won this event last year and went on to win the Killarney Rally of The Lakes, Manx and Cork `20' to take the Dunlop Tarmac Rally Championship title. The Tipperary driver leads off this year's Galway International in his Ford Escort RS Cosworth, followed by Stephen Murphy in another Cosworth.
Austin McHale in a Toyota Celica GT4 is chasing a fourth Galway win, having been pipped on the last stage last year by Meagher. They will be followed on the road by two more Galway winners, Kenny McKinstry (1992 and 1994) in an F.2 Escort and Scotland's Jimmy McRae (1980 and 1982) in an Escort Cosworth.
In addition to Meagher, Murphy, McKinstry and McRae, Escort Cosworths will be driven by James Cullen, Eamonn Boland, Bob Fowden and Peadar Hurson. McHale, Liam O'Callaghan, Andrew Nesbitt and Ian Greer will be in a quartet of Celica GT4s.
Bertie Fisher has never won the Galway rally, which he intends to redress in no uncertain terms at the wheel of a Subaru Impreza. Also entered in a Subaru is Mickey Farrell in the Coras Legacy.
As the Hewison Trophy autotest championship goes into its 13th round (out of 16), Eamonn Byrne has established himself in the lead and is certain to win the title for the fourth time. Sunday's Hewison event is at Dundalk shopping centre, organised by the Co Monaghan MC.
The recent Garda Siochana MC mud plug saw a new winner in John Bolton, who finally beat the Erskine twins eight wins in a row. The Sandycove driver has been at mud plugging for 32 years. He has developed his VW Grasshopper into a very competitive trials car to beat the Erskines' Harley Davidson Special. The Erskines will want to be back in the victory lane in tomorrow's MEC Jenkins Cup Trial at Kilruddery.
The RIAC/Coras Vard National Rally Championship will be run over 14 rounds, starting with the Ballina Motor Club's Downhill Hotel Mayo stages Rally on March 10th. This year the Ballina club celebrates its 20th year.
Maurice Russell (88), who died recently, was a founder member of the Galway Motor Club in 1960. He served as hon secretary from 1973 to 1977. He was president from 1977 to 1985, and subsequently was made an hon life vice president.
Maurice and his wife Bea, who died in 1989, were great stalwarts of not just the Galway club but of motorsport in the West. In 1987 he was presented with a Service to Sport award by the then Minister for Sport, Frank Fahey. The RIAC also presented him with the Ivan Webb Trophy for his work for motorsport throughout Ireland.
