Speedy Fisher is a Circuit sensation

Editorial Department • Published 8 Apr 2010 16:29 0 Comments

See also:

Fisher third in class in Estonia

UTV Drive Circuit of Ireland Rally 2010

Alastair Fisher produced the drive of his life to come within four stages of a sensational Circuit of Ireland victory, but had to settle for third overall after the power of the rival World Rally Cars took advantage of the dry conditions on day two of the Easter weekend event.

11 years on from Bertie Fisher's final Circuit success the Fisher name returned to the head of the leaderboard after Easter Saturday's nine stages, and despite being overtaken by the superior performance of the Subaru and Focus of McGarrity and MacHale, Alastair's finish was still good enough for Group N victory and the championship points took him up to second in the Irish Tarmac series.

The Trillick driver, who was partnered by Enniskillen co-driver Marshall Clarke, inherited the lead when early pace setter Tim McNulty hit trouble on the fifth stage where Alastair posted the fastest time, and he repeated that feat on stages six and eight to hold an overnight lead of 13 seconds.

"Saturday was good in the wet conditions which helped us in the Group N car, and we had no real problems," said Alastair. "We knew if we got a wet rally we would maybe get a bit closer to the World Rally Cars but things dried up on Sunday and our backs were against the wall."

Over the first two stages on Sunday three times Circuit of Ireland winner Derek McGarrity narrowed the gap, and a puncture for Alastair on the fourth test of the day finally ended his dreams of an unlikely victory, although he revelled in his front running position. "To tell you the truth I was never as calm. I know we were running first on the road but it didn't faze me that much and maybe it made me concentrate even more," he said. "On the third stage on Sunday we got a puncture which cost us 30 seconds, but even without that it would have been a hard task to hold off the World Rally Cars. I was happy enough though, and we still got good tarmac championship points."

Garry Jennings was another of the Group N contenders who made an early charge for the lead. The Ballinamallard driver got over an unusually slow start to post the fastest overall time on stage three and looked like he would be contender for overall victory. "Fair play to Alastair. He was going hard and we were having a good battle," said Garry. "I was a bit rusty at the start, but once I got the first two stages over me our times weren't far from each other. If it hadn't rained on Sunday one of us could have won the rally."

Unfortunately for Garry his hopes of outright success were dashed when a broken driveshaft forced him to engage the diff lock on his Mitsubishi for two stages, which led to further problems. "It's very sore on the car if you drive more than half a stage with the diff lock," explained Garry. "Our times were still good but then I heard a noise from the front diff. I drove it on as far as I could but a mile from the end of the stage it went on fire. We got it out and there wasn't much damage, just a bit of smoke damage."

It was a similar story for the third local driver Richard Cathcart, who looked set for a good result before he was cruelly denied with the finish line in sight. With just one stage remaining the Enniskilen driver looked set for fourth overall and second in group N but the transmission of his Subaru expired just miles short of the finish of the last stage.

Willie Mavitty and Rory Byrne also had fraught events on a rally that witnessed a lot of retirements. Willie's rally ended on stage twelve, while Rory exited the event with an electrical problem on day one, only to return the next day under super rally rules and finish in eighteenth position.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 08 Apr 10

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our Sport archives.