1967 February Report from Eire

1967 February “REPORT from EIRE” by Brian Foley

This report first appeared in Autosport Magazine 3 February 1967

Eire Rally Championship

Four of the seven events counting towards the 1966-67 Eire Rally Championship have now been run off, and at this stage the leader is reigning champion Noel Smith. Noel drives a 1275 cc Mini-Cooper S which he affectionately calls the “Little Tommy”, and he only came into the lead after the fourth round, the Safari organized by the Trials Drivers’ Club.

Prior to the Safari, the lead was held by Leslie Fitzpatrick in an MGB, with a total of 33 marks to Smith’s 29. Lying third and fourth were Dermot Carnegie and Conor Linehan, with 27 and 26 marks each. Dermot and Con are two of the top driving test exponents in Eire, both having been picked for the Eire Team for the annual Ken Wharton/BBC TV Trial, and they both drive 1275 Mini-Cooper Ss. Joint sharers of fifth spot were Billy Kilroy (NSU Prinz TT) and Charlie Gunn (Ford Cortina GT), with 25 marks apiece. Another Mini-Cooper man, Des Flanagan, was in seventh place with 22 marks, and tying for eighth position came Paddy O’Callaghan (1600 VW Beetle) and Mick Dolan (Ford Cortina GT) with 20 marks.

Leading navigators after the first three events were as follows: Harry McEvoy (with O’Callaghan and Gunn), 30 marks; Ricky Foott (with Smith), 29 marks; Paddy McGuire (with Dolan and John Gale in his Mini-Cooper S), 28 marks; Noel Davin (with Carnegie), 27 marks; Eamonn Cotter (with Linehan), 26 marks; Dave Dwyer (with Flanagan), 22 marks; Des Bradley (with Fitzpatrick), 21 marks; and Brian Geary (with Bourke), 15 marks.

Until results of the TDC Safari are officially confirmed, latest positions are not available, but with Fitzpatrick not being classified as a finisher in that event Smith looks the most likely candidate to win the Championship for the second time.

First round of the Eire National Rally Championship was the Limerick Club’s Thomond Rally, held mostly in rugged Co Clare, on the night of 1st October. Local crew Connie Bourke and Brian Geary won this one in a Mini-Cooper S with only three marks lost, six less than Carnegie and Davin in second place. Next up were O’Callaghan/McEvoy, followed by Linehan/Cotter, Leslie Fitzpatrick/Donald Grieve, and Flanagan/Dwyer. Smith/Foott retired with damaged front suspension, which was caused by hitting a large boulder.

The Cavan MC organized the Breffni Rally on 15th October, and the winners were Smith and Foott. Billy Kilroy and Terry Harryman tied with Smith/Foott for first on the road with only two marks dropped, but Smith was declared the winner as his 1275S was faster than Kilroy’s NSU TT over a very fast tarred special stage, which was incorporated to decide any such ties.

Actual fastest man over the stage was Gerry McNamara in his Ford Cortina GT, but the Monaghan flyer was unrewarded for this effort. Third overall were Linehan/Cotter, and they then led both drivers’ and navigators’ points tables. Ford Cortina GTs, in the hands of Dolan/McGuire and Gunn/McEvoy, were fourth and fifth on general classification, with Flanagan/Dwyer sixth.

Charlie Gunn and Norman Henderson won the MG Club’s Night Trial (the word “trial” seems inappropriate for a championship rally) on 11th November, with Smith/Foott second, Fitzpatrick/Bradley third, Carnegie/Davin fourth, Kilroy/Harryman fifth, and Larry Mooney/Alan Park (VW Beetle) sixth. Gunn’s victory was all the more meritorious as Charlie was feeling far from well at the start and was suffering from a very heavy dose of cold.

Rally Championship contenders had to wait almost two months after the MG event until the Trials Drivers’ Safari on 6/7th January. This was another all-night event, as indeed are the majority of Eire rallies, and in addition to this being the middle event in the Championship series, further interest was created by the presence of two works Ford men, Brian Melia and Geoff Davies. They did battle in Johnny Moore’s privately-owned Ford Cortina GT.

Noel Smith dropped 88 marks over the five special stages and navigator Ricky Foott dropped only 4 marks over some 250 miles of navigation, so they emerged winners with a loss of 92 marks. There was a remarkable triple tie for second place between English visitors Melia and Davies, Billy Kilroy/Terry Harryman and Dermot Carnegie/Noel Davin. Melia tied with Smith at 88 marks lost on the stages, but he was down 38 marks on the road. Carnegie dropped 94 on the stages and 32 on the road, and Kilroy dropped 97 and 29 marks.

The tie was eventually decided in favour of Melia and Davies as they got further in the rally before dropping marks, and Kilroy/Harryman were officially third with Carnegie/Davin fourth. Peter Cullen and Paddy McClintock were fifth in a Ford Anglia, followed by the NSU Prinz TT of Des Cullen and Peter Murphy.

As the Championship is confined to Eire drivers and navigators only, Melia and Davies did not gain any Championship points. Similarly Northern Ireland navigators such as Terry Harryman (with Kilroy), Norman Henderson (with Gunn) and Donald Grieve (with Fitzpatrick) do not qualify for navigators’ awards in the points championship.

Hewison Trophy Competition

Positions in the Hewison Trophy competition for the Eire Driving Test Championship, after five out of ten events, is as follows:

1. Dermot Carnegie, 66 points in 5 events;
2. Larry Mooney, 54 in 4;
3. Conor Linehan, 50 in 4;
4. Connie Bourke, 50 in 5;
5. Des Bradley, 41 in 4;
6. John Gale, 40 in 5;
7. George Reed, 38 in 4;
8. Terry Power, 34 in 3;
9. Seamus Griffin, 30 in 4;
10. Stephen Griffin, 28 in 3.

The Irish MRC’s Autumn Trial on 29th October was the first Hewison event of the 1966-67 series, and with Con Linehan, Larry Mooney and Des Cullen representing Eire in the BBC TV Trial, there was naturally not a truly representative entry. Dermot Carnegie in his 1275 Mini-Cooper S won by two marks from Des Bradley in a Mini 1100, with Stephen Griffin third in his now veteran 1172 cc GTS-Ford s/c.

All the Hewison challenges were in action in the Leinster Club’s Lincoln and Nolan Cup Trial on 12th November, which like the IMRC event was held in a quarry over a rough surface that presented serious wheel grip problems. Dermot Carnegie won well, with Larry Mooney performing amazing feats with a Volkswagen to finish second, and third was Des Bradley. Con Linehan, 1965/66 Hewison winner, and Stee Griflin, three time Hewison winner, both failed a test, which dropped them right out of the picture.

The next three Hewison events were normal road type trials of the type popular in Eire for many years now. Winner of the Connacht Club’s Winter Trial at Sligo on 27th November was Con Linehan, with Larry Mooney again second overall and Dermot Carnegie third. A new force came very much into the reckoning at Sligo in the form of the exuberant Eamonn Cotter, who was throwing his recently acquired 1275 cc Mini-Cooper S around with such wild abandon that either of two things would happen — he would literally win by a street or he would clobber something. The latter happened, and the Mini’s front end fared worse than the iron post which Cotter struck very hard when executing a front wheel “throw”.

Cotter made no mistakes in the Galway Club’s Lobitos Cup Trial on 18th December, and he captured the Premier Award by 4.2 marks from fellow Galwayman Linehan. Despite the tight nature of a number of tests, Larry Mooney finished third, Carnegie was fourth, and a particularly neat exhibition of how an MG Midget can be handled brought Georgie Reed into fifth place.

The closest Hewison event of the season was the Kilkenny Club’s Traders’ Cup Trial on 8th January. After 10 tests only 8.8 seconds covered the first six, as follows:

1. Con Linehan, 310.4 secs;
2. Terry Power (1275 Mini-Cooper S), 313.4;
3. Larry Mooney (VW), 315.0;
4. Connie Bourke (1275 Mini-Cooper S), 315.2;
5. Carnegie, 316.0; and
6. Demi Fitzgerald (1275 Mini-Cooper S), 319.6.

At one stage just two seconds covered five drivers, but in the final three tests Linehan pulled out all the stops, whereas Carnegie seemed to lose his “tiger” and he slowed down a little.