Ruan’s Anthony O’Halloran Crowned National Champion

By RallyPortfolio.com

Ruans Anthony O’Halloran following a long season that kicked off last March, has battled his way through the final round of the Dunlop National Rally Championship which took place in Skibbereen over the Bank Holiday weekend to become National Champion in Class 14 at the wheel of his Manta 400. This is the third National Championship title, which O’Halloran has won in the past five years. The previous two being in the hotly contested Class 13.

Skibbereen is always a tricky event. Given the time of year the conditions are usually wet, greasy and his year was no different. Going into the event O’Halloran was neck and neck with Gerry Cassidy G3 Escort and had to beat him in order to take the title.

“ We had to pick a pace that would allow us to stay on the road given that it was so greasy out there today, so we settled in over the first two stages leaving us 6s down on Gerry. Over SS3 and SS4 we pushed very hard, flat out actually, the notes were spot on, Charlie McEnery doing a fine job, and pulled out 1min 20s on SS3 and SS4, which gave us a bit of space over Cassidy. On SS5 we had a very big high speed moment sliding onto the grass and just keeping it out of the ditch when we got to the end of he stage the tyres were down to the canvass, so it was time to back it off a bit. Over the remainder of the rally it was a case of doing enough to maintain our lead, considering the last stage was 19 km there was no way we were going to jeopardize the championship. It was a very satisfactory days rallying, great to take the Championship and the class win here today. We have one more round left in the West Coast Rally Championship in Banna in a couple of weeks, we are lying 2nd overall in that, so we’ll see how it goes!”
Finally, “I’d like to extend my thanks to Charlie McEnery who has been navigating me for the better part of this season, also Denis Rynne and all the service crew who have be great over the season and also many thanks to our sponsors for their support, without which we wouldn’t be rallying.”

Next seasons preparations are well under way with a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX being built to contest Group N on the 2009 Dunlop National Championship, this will be a big step up for the team in running this type of car and should prove to be a very competitive car with Anthony and Charlie on board.