Donnelly takes victory for the Irish in Adirondack Park
By Neil McDaid

October 7th, Harrisville, NY. Perched behind the wheel of one of the top Mitsubishi Evolution Rally cars in the USA, Charlie [Celsus] Donnell, formally from Fintona Co Tyrone, would claim victory in the final round of the 2006 NASA/ESRC. On a day in which many of the top drivers in the event were caught out on the early stages, Donnelly was able to steer his very powerful open class Mitsubishi between the many rocks, jumps, off-camber bumps and some very large pine trees to take the victory at The Black River Stages Rally.

The Rally was run in the northeast corner of the vast Adirondack Forest Park in upstate New York, only some 30 miles from the Canadian border. The first frost of the fall would greet the rally crews early Saturday as they headed for the start of SS1 “Power Line 1”. At little over seven and a half miles this would be the longest stage of the rally. Danny O’Brien would set the early mark with a fastest time of 6:25 with Donnelly some 4 seconds of the pace.

Retirements would strike early for the Irish. Donal McGivney and Noel Gallagher, in their Subaru, dropped a front control arm over a crest. Donal managed to bring the Impreza to a safe stop, despite every effort by Donal and Noel Gallaher they were unable to get the Impreza up and running ending their rally.

SS2 “Fishing Hole 1”. Running first on the road, Charlie Donnelly was on a tear as he pushed the Mitsubishi at full tilt almost sideways through the entire stage. With no recce allowed on the stages driver and co-driver would have to rely on the stage notes provided by the organizers. Although these notes are generally very detailed they do not always highlight every hazard, like hidden rocks.

Hardly a mile into this short three and a half mile stage a series of left-right-left bends would claim a few victims. Danny O’Brien, running second on the road, would attack SS2 with the same commitment as the opening test. The notes called a “left four short” into a “right five short” into a “left six”.

Danny would enter the ‘left four’ a little too hot forcing him to slide into the right five. The rear of the car would clip a large rock hidden between the bends launching the car into a series of spins. I was perched about a hundred yards down the road and watched the Subaru head into the bushes. Within few seconds O’Brien had the car fired up and somehow got her back up onto the road. Unfortunately, the damage was done. The impact had broken a rear wheel and Danny had to pull over and change it, losing some 5 minutes.

Early trouble for O'Brien on SS2 as he makes junk of a rear wheel



Fellow Irish driver Enda McCormack, in a Mitsubishi, would also struggle through the same tricky section that caught out O’Brien. He would also spin but was lucky to get going again with no damage. Running ninth on the road Massachusetts driver Emilio Arce and co-driver Sarah Gardescu would have the biggest moment on the stage when they also came into the tight section with way to much speed. They would, unfortunately, roll the Impreza twice before coming to a rest against a stump of a large pine tree. Both Emilio and Sarah walked away uninjured. The same could not be said for their Impreza.

Brennan finds his mark after Turbo problems on the morning stsges

Stages three and four would be a repeat of SS1 & SS2. Cavan man Paddy Brennan, a sure contender for the overall victory going into the rally, would do his best to stay on the pace while suffering mechanical problems early in the day because of a turbo pipe that would not stay connected on his open class Subaru.

Heading into the first service of the day back in the small town of Harrisville Charlie Donnelly, with his cousin Barry McCann as navigator, had built a commanding lead of 1 minute and 48 seconds over the second place crew of Brennan and Brady. Enda McCormack and Kieran McElhinney, also out of New York, would round out the top three for the Irish. With O’Brien’s off on SS2 he was now sitting in 14th some 4:24 back from Donnelly.

Meep! Meep! a photgraphers nightmare, O'leary & O'leary

Much like Donnelly and Brennan, O’Brien, who had just clinched his third consecutive Eastern States Rally Championship title for 2006, had been one of the favorites for the overall victory coming into this year’s return of the Black River stages.

Further down the running order in the hotly contested M2 class a bit of a battle was taking place between the Boston Irish crews of Larry Duane and Eamon Sweeny in the Toyota Twin Cam Corolla and “Big Dan” Broslan and Martin Skelton in the Nissan Sentra. Sitting in second behind Dan Cook in the Datsun, Duane had pulled out a forty second lead over Broslan in third at the first service stop.

The afternoon stages would be made up of four stages all run twice. Danny O’Brien would go on the attack early to try and work down the time lost with the damaged wheel on SS1. The first time over SS5, “Jayville In,” O’Brien would set the second fastest time, just seven second off the blistering pace set by Donnelly. Again, on SS6 “Jayville out,” O’Brien would push Donnelly coming within four seconds of Charlie’s stage time.
Danny O’Brien would eventually set the fastest time over SS7 “Goose Pond in,” some six seconds faster than leader Donnelly, and also the stage win on SS12.

In the end, when the time cards were verified after a long day of 12 special stages over some very deceiving forest roads with hidden hazards, Charlie Donnelly would bring home the victory. After struggling for many years, pushing hard and trying to be competitive in lesser equipment Charlie finally proves his worth in the same Mitsubishi Evo that brought Tom Lawless to the overall victory in the United States Rally Championship in 2005. Charlie finished with a comfortable 2:21 cushion over Paddy Brennan who, despite numerous issues, was able to hang on to second.

Enda McCormack encored a 20 second penalty for a late arrival to time control 7, pushing him down to forth behind Randy Zimmer and Travis Sleight. Despite all the hard work from O’Brien, in the end it was a bridge too far to make up the difference lost on SS2, and he had to settle for 5th overall.


Showing some great driving form, Liam Mulvey, with Stephen Duffy on the notes, kept the tail out wherever possible on their Mazda RX3 as they took the class victory in M1 and 6th overall.

In M2 Class, Duane and Sweeney in the Corolla, in only their second full season in rallying, claimed the M2 class victory and 7th overall. Dan Broslan, who chased Duane all day, had no answer for the every increasing pace of his fellow Boston crew.

Looking forward to BRS 2007!