Donnelly's winning streak is alive and well
By Neil McDaid
Monticello NY, March 31st. It’s 5 am Saturday morning, in the darkness of a frosty spring morning we’re awakened from our sleep by the sound of a rumbling beast in the hotel car park, it’s Seamus Burke Mitsubishi Evo warming up to tackle the stages of Rally New York 2007. With the first of the days stages scheduled to start at 7:13 it was the beginning of one of the longest days we would witness for a single days rallying. For Burke it would also be the start of another disappointing day for the defending United States Rally Champion.
Most crews would get to the service park in Narrowsburg at around 6 am to make any last minutes adjustment before they would tackle the 20 special stages that would make up Rally New York 2007. The Boston based crew of Larry Duane and Eamon Sweeney would find themselves under pressure early as the gearbox fails on their Toyota Corolla, with the help of their service crew a replacement box was installed in record time and they just about make the official start time.
Burke with Eddie Fries on the notes would be first off the line on SS1 Marthias Weiden (1), running on cold tarmac tires the duo would soon find out that they had little or no grip, they were no distance into the stage when they slid wide and ended up in a large drain. After loosing some precious seconds the all wheel drive Mitsubishi would eventfully claw it’s way out and they were again underway, amazingly Burke would still manage to set fastest time on the stage.
Unfortunately for the crew of Burak Tuglu and Mustafa Samli they would not be so lucky, they would have a nasty roll over in the beautifully prepared Spec Ford Focus on SS1 that would end their rally.
Paddy Brennan and Charlie Donnelly would set matching times on SS1 for a tied second place and Danny O’Brien would lock down third.
On to SS2 Blind pond, the first of four runs on this stage, again Burke would through down the mark to beat, Danny O’Brien would push his newly build Subaru into second. Enda McCormack showed no fear over the large jump at the start of the stage, matching times with Charlie Donnelly for a tied third place. After years of trouble free rally’s for the Kerry man, Dan Broslan his open class Nissan Sentra would blow it’s engine on SS2 making Dan and his navigator spectators for the day.
The beast that awoke us in the early hours of the morning would be silenced on SS3 the second run over Marthias Weiden (2) not 100 yards from the end of the stage, the car would die. Something had worked it’s way in behind the timing cover and damaged a sensor, most likely a small stone, which could have been collected in the earlier off. This is now 3 DNF’s (did not finish) for Burke in his last 3 rally’s, speaking with Seamus at one of the spectator areas later in the day he said, “The car would going great, we were definitely on the pace, we would have giving the boys a run for it, we just did not have enough time to test before the rally, we will be back!”. Despite the lack of brakes Danny O’Brien and co-driver Dominik Jozwiak would set fastest time on SS3.
After the first four stages of the day the cars would return to Narrowsburg for service. Danny O’Brien was now in first overall, with Paddy Brennan and co-driver Shane McCann just seven seconds adrift in second . Enda McCormack and Bernard Farrell would hold down third. Struggling to stay in contention with Turbo waste gate problems, Charlie Donnelly and co-driver Noel Gallagher was back to forth. Rounding out the top five was Patsy Lilly with Thomas Taggart in their Subaru.
After service the teams would head out and tackle the same stages again, with his waste gate problems sorted while in service, Charlie Donnelly would start his charge to the front, setting fastest times over SS6-7. There was a few anxious moments for NYC based Doengalman, Michael Gillespie on SS6 Blind Pond (3) he would fall victim to some of his wheel studs working their way loose. After taking the big jump at a decent clip, Gillespie’s car would loose a wheel on landing, Michael made great work to try to keep control of the car, but in the end he was along for the ride as his open class MK11 Escort ploughed into the ditch. Thankfully both Michael and co-driver Brian Kirby both walked away unharmed.
Danny O’Brien would remind Donnelly he was still there on SS7, by matching time with the hard charging northern man. Donnelly was untouchable on SS8, Paddy Brennan would be some 4 seconds off the pace of Charlie. Enda McCormack would take third fastest on SS8, while Danny O’Brien would loose a lot of time due to a high speed spin while fighting continued braking problems.
Paddy Brennan’s pace thorough the day would see him tied for the overall lead with Charlie Donnelly after eight stages, but it would all come to a sudden end on SS9. Paddy would slide his Subaru wide on some loose winter gravel and connected with a large rock on the roadside, making Spaghetti of his rear suspension arms and rear wheel, a very disappointing end to a great drive.
A high speed roll on SS11 would also end the rally for Boston based driver Dave Fury, remarkable Dave and his co-driver walked away from his VW Golf which was a total wreak.
After 12 hard fought tarmac stages the teams would return once again Narrowsburg, which was also the host town for the Rally for a much needed break. While the drivers and co-drivers stopped for lunch, their service crews prepped the cars for the remaining 8 stages of the day which would be run on gravel.
Heading into the gravel section Charlie Donnelly was holding first overall with Danny O’Brien in second and Enda McCormack in third.
We would see the O’Leary brothers Michael and John retire with clutch problems on their Mitsubishi after the first of the afternoon gravel stages. The gravel stages were made up using two stage roads eight times in alternating directions. Talking with a few of the drivers after the first run over the gravel stages they all agreed that it was tight going over a two mile section that was very wet and sloppy on the Cochecton Turnpike stage, but they really enjoyed the rest of the gravel stages.
Rally New York enjoyed a large turnout of spectators the most we have seen in years, and although there was a limited entry down somewhat from years gone by, those spectators that lines the roads were not disappointed in the action.
Despite the numerous offs the rally was somehow kept fairly close to its original schedule.
In the end the Irish teams would lay claim to 5 of the top 10 places overall. Charlie Donnelly and Noel Gallagher both out of the New York City area would hold onto a nice lead into the darkness to take the overall victory at Rally New York.
Second and third would be separated by only 7 seconds after the long, long day of racing. Enda McCormack [NYC] would take the edge over Danny O’Brien who had to settle for third. An amazing drive by the brothers Joshua and Jeremy Wimpy in their VW Golf GTI would see them split the Irish drivers and claim 4th overall and 1st in two wheel drive. Despite turbo problems late in the day, Gerry Coffey and Dave Dooley would hold on to 5th keeping Big Patsy Lilly at bay in 6th.
The victory for Donnelly puts him well ahead in the points for the 2007 United States Rally Championship, but I truly expect to see Charlie tested very soon, next up is the all tarmac, Rally Tennessee on May 5th. For more in check out
http://www.rallytennessee.com/
Donegal Vs Christopher’s would be the first of the quarter finals played on this cold New England Sunday.
Kerry would hold a slight edge against the Shannon Blues to take the victory in game two. It's on from here to meet Donegal in the semi finals. Final score 1-08 to 1-04 victory.
McAnespies would open strong in game three, as a result they would show a 2-01 advantage by the half. Armagh finally found their stride in the second but it was not enough to make a difference. 
SS2 was the beginning of the end for Laughlin O Sullivan in the K&N sponsored Mitsubishi Evo [car#90]. Engine smoke would lead to his early retirement after only two stages.
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