Burke Takes Round Five Of The U.S. Rally Championship

By Neil McDaid

Seamus Burke took maximum points at Rally West Virginia boosting his bid to retain the United States Rally championship title. Round five of the USRC would take place in the high hills of the Mountain state. The rally would not go down without its fair share of drama and excitement along the twisted back roads of Randolph County.

Rally West Virginia would also count as round three of the Eastern States rally championship along with the added bonus of been a part of the 2007 Max Attack Triple Crown series.

Day-one would see the 38 crews tackle the first of the very technical all gravel mountain stages, lined with hairpin turns and incredible drop offs, crews were giving both writing and verbal warnings of several triple cautions on the Friday stages.

As expected Seamus Burke and Eddie Fries in the Shamrock Building Systems sponsored Mitsubishi would push the early pace setting the fastest time over SS1 "Turbodawg Long". Some 34 seconds off the pace of Burke fellow Irish driver Charlie Donnelly would claim second.

Justin Pritchard and Kyle Sarasin would lock bumpers for third.

Before the end of the first stage several crews would fall victim to the tough twists and turns of the tight country roads.

Tyrone man, Martin "the other" Donnelly out of NYC who has been away from the sport for a few years was out for the first time in his new Mitsubishi Evo 8, Martin would be first to explore the West Virginia scenery. Brake failure on a nasty downhill section into a tight hairpin turn at the bottom would be the demise of Donnelly and co-driver Stephen Duffy's Friday stages. Luckily for the crew the car came to rest against a large tree only sustaining minimal damage. With some donated parts and a great effort by their service crew they would be back in action for day two.

Unfortunately Carrie Wilburn's Subaru Impreza would not come off a lightly, Carrie would leave the road and land hard on the front of the car then colliding with a tree eventually ending up on her roof. Thankfully both Carrie and navigator Damian Treanor managed to escape unharmed.

Brian Rutledge would also damage a ball joint on his Impreza, forcing him to retire, Rutledge would make repairs and return Saturday

Charlie Donnelly and Noel Gallagher the current point's leaders in the USRC would get within 6 seconds of Burke's pace on SS3, but trouble loomed for Donnelly on SS4. They would break a front drive on their Evo 2, unfortunately the car was not repairable, and their rally was over. At the end of day one, Seamus Burke held a two minute advantage over Justin Prichard in his Subaru. Putting in a fantastic drive teenager Kyle Sarasin was holding down third in his Ford Focus.

Day-two would see crews hit the road bright and early heading south of Elkins for the first on 13 special stages. Not using the conventional continuation of stage numbers from day-one rally organizers would start the first stage on Saturday as SS1, a little confusing for some.

Sat, SS1 "Adolf Expressway "could have been more appropriately named the "eye opener" the rally organizer suggested that this stage could possibly have more turns per mile that any other stage in the country. It would be another rerun of the Burke and Fries show, they would set fastest times over the first four stages of the day. Justin Pritchard would hold his ground maintaining second over Charles Sherrill in third.

All two wheel drive cars entered in the rally were eligible to contest for the Max Attack cash prizes; the two wheel drive competition at times was more exciting that the battle for the overall rally lead. The top six finishers in two wheel drive would all receive cash ranging from $800- $2,000. Mere seconds separated the top contenders throughout the rally.

Little did Seamus Burke know entering SS5 that his 4 minute advantage over the field would be erased. About half way through the stage Burke's gear selector would jam, leaving the car stuck in high gear. Burke pulled off the stage to make repairs, after losing some six minutes he managed to get going again, his rally lead gone.

Heading into SS6, Burke was now down almost two minutes to Pritchard, he would throw caution to the wind and set a blistering pace over "UberDeustchland 3", Burke was some 25 seconds faster than Enda McCormack who also obviously liked the conditions and found his form taking second. More importantly Burke was some 29 seconds faster than rally leader Justin Pritchard.

After setting the fastest time on SS6 over his fellow Max Attack competitors, a ruptured gas tank would be the end of the road for Seamus Burke's son Joseph. In only his second rally "Young" Burke in his G2 Acura with Boston's Eamonn Sweeney guiding his way on the notes, would catch and pass several cars throughout the rally.

Obviously the apple did not fall far from the tree; we expect to see some great stuff from Joseph in the future. We would also loss Greg Healy in the Datsun 280Z, Greg would slide off the road into a field of cattle.

The elder Burke would continue to claw back time on SS7 but the cancellation of SS8 due to communication problems piled on the pressure on Burke as stage miles dwindled. Burke could not afford to lose the rally or his hopes of retaining the Championship title would be gone.

SS9 "Boney Turk", a high speed challenge on smooth fast small gravel, with a few hairpins and crests to make things interesting, this stage scores high as a drivers favorite. Again it was Burke that throw down a time of 4:07 over the 6.61 mile test, Charles Sherrill could only manage 4:20 to claim second.

Burke would continue his domination over the final stages to reclaim the lead and ultimately the overall victory. Justin Pritchard would claim second with Charles Sherrill taking third. Continuing an amazing driver, Kyle Sarasin claimed forth in the FWD Focus beating out many more powerful all wheel drive cars. Kyle would also claim the top prize in the Max Attack.

Up next for the east coast will be round seven of the USRC, International Rally New York, September 6-8th this year the Rally headquarters will relocate to Ellenville. With Donnelly still well ahead in the points Rally New York is shaping up to be a great battle. I expect to see a strong entry from the Irish teams for this local event.

For more information visit rallynewyork.com