West Cork Historic Rally report – all Kerry crews mentioned and photos of most

There was massive Kerry interest in the Historic element of the West Cork Rally.

Of the 27 cars entered in the category, 11 of them has some sort of Kerry connection. 

Ran over the latter stages of the Saturday loop and all day Sunday, there were plenty of stories at the rally end. 

Denis Cronin and his Kilgarvan co-driver Helen O’Sullivan finished third in their Ford Escort. A misfiring engine hampered progress on Saturday.

Alan Ring was fourth in his BMW M3 with deputising co-driver Denis O’Donovan in the passenger seat due to the unavailability of regular man Adrian Deasy.

Maurice Meskell was sixth in a Ford Escort Mk1 that is prepared by Churchill’s Brendan Brosnan. 

Rathmore’s Declan Casey and his driver Michael McDaid had to rely on SuperRally rules to get to the finish, mechanical problems on the opening Ring stage on Sunday morning ended a fine drive. They were second overnight but eventually finished 16th.

Tommy Commane’s regular driver Philip McKribben celebrated his 60^th birthday on Saturday and they marked the occasion by finishing tenth in Ford Escort Mk1.

Robert Falvey finished in 11th place – two high-speed spins on Saturday and gearbox issues on Sunday morning were just some of the tribulations that the Escort driver faced over the weekend.

Killarney and District Motor Club member Alan Watkins finished 14^th despite tyre issues on Saturday. 

Retirements included Luke McCarthy and Brian Duggan, their Ford Escort suffered multiple gearbox and clutch issues over the weekend and James Hall and Tony McCarthy who did not enter the second Ring stage on Sunday afternoon.

Ray Breen, whose father came from Strand Road, in Tralee retired his Subaru Legacy on Saturday night as he was feeling unwell with a touch of flu. On Saturday he praised the efforts of his team who worked so hard to re-build the car after its Killarney tumble last November. 

Fergus O’Meara and Ronald Riordan were on the historic rally reserve list but did not get the call so transferred in to the main field were they finished despite clutch issues on Saturday. 

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