With three rounds to run of the Red Mills National Rally Championship, the battle for the title is down to two drivers. Niall Maguire, driving a Subaru Legacy, leads John Gilleece by two points, 116 to 114. Maguire says that he "will drive as hard as possible and try to keep John at bay" and, with tongue in cheek perhaps, he adds "both John and myself would like to see the championship go all the way to the last round in Skibbereen".
Reigning champion Gilleece has upped his stages' speed and will no doubt push his Ford Escort RS Cosworth to beat Maguire in Sunday's Millennium Motors Galway Summer Rally.
In addition to the championship contenders, the capacity entry includes last year's winner Ian Greer in a Toyota Celica CT4, Eamonn Boland and Stephen Murphy in Ford Escort WRCs, Hugh Martin Doherty (Subaru Impreza), Daniel Doherty (Legacy), Hal Lewis (Metro 6R4), third-placed Dermot Kelly, John McCluskey and Ken Lyons in Escort Cosworths. The will no doubt set a sizzling pace over the 3x3 stages in the Portumna area.
Boland and Murphy are using the Galway event as preparation for the Cork 20 International Rally on October 3rd/4th.
An International Group N saloon race may be the feature at Mondello Park on Sunday, but the big home interest will be on the championship battles in all four single-seater racing car classes. In Formula Opel, Jason Pollock on 47 points has a virtually unassailable lead over Mark Kershaw (30), Vivion Daly (29), Peter Duke (27) and Michael Keohane (21). In the concurrentlyrun Formula Opel Cup, the top three are: Keohane (50), Kershaw (48) and Noel Dunne (30).
The Formula Ford Zetec Championship is between Neil Shanahan and Chris Paul on 87 points each, with Philip Kehoe just about in touch on 72 points. On corrected scores, Shanahan leads Paul by four points and Kehoe is 13 points behind Paul.
Northern teenager Matthew Gilmore, in his first year of Formula Ford 1600, has won the `Star of Tomorrow' series, scoring 139 points, with Jason Curran (92) and Ian Newport (84) contesting the runner-up place.
Ray Moore on 97 points has pulled ahead of Dominic Dillon and Paul Newport on 82 each in the Formula Vee National Championship, with Andy Kavanagh (79), Karl Lennon (79) and Enda O'Connor (75) not far away. In the A class, it's Moore (98), Kavanagh (94), Dillon and Newport (89 each). Enda O'Connor leads Philip Rafferty by 17 points in the B class; and Class C is between John Casey (104) and Karl Lennon (103).
If spectators want to see the International Group N saloons, be warned that the race starts at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday and will run over four hours. The first of the National Championship races is scheduled to start at 2.45 p.m.
