Jennings top seed for Galway International Rally

A capacity entry of 122 teams for this year’s Colm Quinn BMW Galway International Rally, a significant increase on last year, has been confirmed by Galway Motor Club.

The competing teams, their sponsors and crews, and the thousands of spectators that will line the route will bring a welcome early season boost to visitor numbers to Galway city and county.

For 2014, the event has reverted to a two day format and is expected to generate over 2,000 bed nights for hotels and guest houses. The event is worth in the region of €5m to the local economy.

The entries have been boosted by the recent announcements of sponsorship of the championship by Clonakilty Blackpudding and the fact that the event will be filmed by SportsVision for broadcast on UTV, TG4, Sky and Motors TV during February.

The organisers have alreday seeded the entries and the rally winner is likely to come from one of the top ten seeds. Number 1 is the current Irish Tarmac rally champion, Gary Jennings from Fermanagh, with his Donegal co-driver, Rory Kennedy. Gary is driving a Subaru WRC car.

He will be followed by Eugene Donnelly from Maghera, co-driven by Paul Kiely, in a MINI WRC. Eugene, a previous winner of the event, has finished second for the past two years, and hopes to go one better in 2014.

The number 3 seed is the identical MINI WRC of Derek McGarrity from Antrim, followed away by the current Dunlop National Champions Declan and Brian Boyle from Donegal, in their Subaru WRC, also from Donegal, Donagh Kelly in his Focus WRC, and then the two Fiesta WRC cars of Sam Moffett from Monaghan, and Daragh O’Riordan from Cork.

There are a total of ten crews from outside of Ireland taking part in this year’s event, some travelling from USA and Canada, others from London, Wales and UK, while members of Galway Motor Club taking part in the event will be seeking to put their name on the prestigious Brian G Thornton Memorial Cup.

Full preview in this week’s Connacht Tribune