Rally Ulster

As the rally fast approaches and the excitement builds the age old question “who’ll be the man to watch?” is muttered from the lips of competitors and spectators alike.

For competitors its those men that are going to top the time-sheets that are the concern, for the spectators its more a case of who’s going to have the tail out the most!

Certainly Wesley Patterson, seeded at no.1 will be very hard to beat on the timesheets. In his rapid 2.5 Escort with Martin McGarrity alongside him, Wesley has proved consistently to be the force to be reckoned with in this category. Declan McNaughton at no.2 can never be discounted,he has the ability and the machinery to ‘turn the wick up’ and with this effectively being his home rally he could threaten Wesley’s dominance. 

There are a lot of quick men on the entry list who can claim home advantage – Ballymena’s George Robinson at #3, Antrim’s Rodney White and Drew Stewart at #6 and #9 respectively, not to mention Glenarm’s Andy Magee at #11. Indeed Rodney White starts at the head of the 2 litre class and, capable as he is, he will have his hands full keeping the likes of Drew Stewart at bay. Bushmills’ fastest farmer Alastair Cochrane at no. 10 will, no doubt, be in the race as always in his 2 litre machine. Glenarm’s Andy Magee, who made a return to rallying after a 4 year sabbatical at last year’s Ulster, will be hoping he can return to winning ways this year. Behind these men there’s almost 10 further 2litre competitors each with the pace and desire to slide their rear wheel drive machines to class victory.

Starting at no.6 talented young Co. Antrim Oran Donnelly is first of the 8 valve class runners. No doubt he’ll be hard to beat in this class – another man in home territory he has the habit of setting times to shame men in more powerful machines. In class 4 (1600cc class) it would be hard to look past Ronan Lynn - the Cushendall man set a scintillating time over Torr Head last year on his way to an emphatic class win.

All in all, while the numbers may be smaller than previous years, the depth of quality means it will be no easier to win or the pace any less frenetic.

– This post was brought to you by all inclusive holidays www.allinclusiveholiday.co.uk and Magee Motorsport www.mageemotorsport.com –

So here it is the 2010 Ulster National Rally Entry List:

This post was brought to you by all inclusive holidays www.allinclusiveholiday.co.uk

Its less than a week now to the start of the 2010 Ulster Rally and the crews eagerly await their first glimpse of the seeded entry list for the event. Amongst those crews of course is Glenarm’s Andy Magee. Co-driver Jonathan Charlesson commented “It doesn’t make a massive difference on a rally like the Ulster but you’re always keen to see where the organisers have seeded you. Its nice to be running in and around the guys you know and have a friendly rivalry with.”

Next on the agenda for the crew, aside from final preparations to their All Inclusive Holidays backed mk2 Escort, is the recce on Thursday. The recconaisance day will be the first time the crew get to see the Ulster Rally 2010 stages. Looking forward to Thursday Andy commented ”Quite a bit of the mileage could well be the same as last year but we’ll just have to wait and see…”

After 4 years away from the gravel forest roads of the NI rally championship, Andy Magee was pleasantly surprised to be lying 2nd 2 wheel drive and 12th overall after the first three stages of last saturday’s Dogleap stages rally. One stage later however, the excitement of such a promising start had turned to bitter disappointment after an errant stone had broken the oil pump drive belt causing a sudden loss of oil pressure. Thankfully the crew spotted the warning light within the Magee Motorsport Mk2 Escort almost immediately and Andy turned the engine off in an attempt to limit engine damage. The damage limitation worked, subsequent investigation has revealed that a set of new bearings to be all that is required to leave the engine back in tip-top condition. More severe engine damage would’ve spelt double disappointment as that would’ve ruled the allinclusiveholiday.co.uk backed team out of their home Ulster rally next weekend as well. Co-driver Jonathan Charlesson commented “Andy had put a lot of work into the set-up of the car before the rally and it really seemed to be working for him. We were setting some pretty competitive times, especially considering Andy hasn’t done a gravel event for 4 years. Thankfully the engine damage is fairly light so its all systems go for the Ulster rally now!!”