Published: Wednesday, 4th March, 2009 12:00pm

A perfect start at Nenagh

Patrick Elliott and Paul Goodman didn"t expect to win the first round of the National Rally Championship in Tipperary last week. They went south as defending champions but the driver wasn"t optimistic: 'It was fantastic to get the win,' said Patrick. 'At this time of year I normally wouldn"t be that strong on those type of rallies, bit it was fantastic to win in those conditions.'

He wasn"t getting ahead of himself though and warned that nine more rallies remain in the 2009 series. 'We"ll wait and see how the rest of the year pans out for us,' he added.

'Mayo [round two of the championship, this Sunday, March 8] is generally a tough rally as well. With the time of year the conditions are slippy no matter where you go in the country. The farmers are busy - that"s just the way it is. But there"s a good mix of fast, bumpy roads and tighter slower stuff. We"ll take it one rally at time, we wouldn"t go expecting to win.'

James Harrison and Harvey Bell, who were regular visitors from England a few years ago, were back for Tipperary and finished second behind the Cavan man. Harrison has been quick on Irish Tarmac, so will he challenge Elliott this year? 'Yes, he"s a very fast driver, he"s just not match fit at the minute,' said Patrick. 'I would love to see him come and do the whole championship, he"s a tough competitor.'

And what about the old adversary, Niall Maguire? The Monaghan man and co-driver Enda Sherry punctured early in the day and finished third overall. 'If it wasn"t for that, the result could have been very different,' Patrick pointed out. 'On face of it looks like we beat him by a lot [2:20] but without that puncture it could"ve been around 50s.'

The Cavan team had a few problems too - the launch control wasn"t working properly - and they"re aware Maguire will get faster as year goes on. 'He"ll make me work a lot harder in Mayo,' said Patrick.

Cavan was well represented through the classes on the Birr Stages: Thomas Carolan and Declan Smith had a good outing on their way to class nine victory. The coil lead bothered them early on but fought back over the day. Pa and Jimmy Bellew had gearbox problems on the last loop of stages, but were going well up to that. Paul Elliott made 16th overall and set some strong times, and in class two, Martin Reilly started well but crashed on SS4. In class ten, Kevin Clear, familiar as a marshal at Latton, was second. He led early but dropped back behind Shane Maguire (a son of Niall).

Mark Wedlock was second in class eleven and 18th overall after hitting engine trouble during the day. Jim McKenna won the class with a performance that stood out as he matched the top 2WDs runners.

Fred Holmes from Leitrim and Cavan MC navigator Alan McGovern from Drowa made the top ten in their class but had mechanical trouble towards the end; and Declan Quiggly and Adrian Foley had a steady run on their first time out with a new 1600cc engine. Gerry Smith dominated class twelve but tipped the MkII and had to retire.

Trevor Mulligan and Des Moore battled all day for 2WD honours, which eventually went Mulligan"s way, and Chris Snow was second in the junior section. •With thanks to Seamus Cooke, Cavan MC PRO.

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