Local man, Alan Ring’s high-ranking finish in last weekend’s Rally of the Lakes didn’t just happen overnight.
Alan has been plugging away at various levels of motor-sport for the best part of the past 20 years. Back in 1995, after he won all he could on the Race Karting circuit, Alan moved up a few gears to Formula Ford level. This would have given him the opportunity to race on the hallowed surface of Mondello park and circuits of its ilk throughout the Island of Ireland.
People who follow motor-sport will have noticed his name cropping up reports from time-to-time. Well it’s up there now after last weekend and let’s wish him all the success the sport has to offer.
Singer, Paddy Reilly told an interviewer once that when ‘The Fields of Athenry’ became a success for him he was asked where he came from ‘All of a Sudden.’
Reilly, too, had been plugging away on the long hard circuit of clubs and pubs and dancehalls before the Athenry break came his way.
Killarney Today’s John O’Mahony sent us the following report and Eamonn Keogh sent the two presentation photographs.
County Monaghan duo Sam Moffett and James O’Reilly zipped their way to ultimate glory in a thrill-a-minute Rally of the Lakes in Killarney this Sunday afternoon.
Their power-packed Ford Fiesta WRC was first to cross the line after early pacesetter Declan Boyle from Donegal crashed out.
It was a memorable rally also for local driver Alan Ring, with navigator Adrian Deasy, as they finished in a fantastic second place, just 2.39:3 off the pace in their Subaru S12B.
Another of the Moffett clan, Sam’s brother Josh, and his navigator John Rowan eased their Mitsubishi Evo 9 into third.
It was a great rally also for another local crew, Jimmy White and Damien Fleming, who were 15th overall in their Honda.
The course saw them tackle Moll’s Gap for the third time before progressing to a loop of three stages which had not been used for 10 years in the Rally of the Lakes.
The first of these, Borlin, was actually a combination of two old classics, Sheen River and Borlin, and it brought the rally over the county bounds into Cork.
The second was the fabulous lakeside stage at Lough Allua.
Fuhiry, which starts outside Ballingeary, brought the competitors back over the county bounds, past Creedon’s newly rebuilt pub at the Top of Coom, the highest pub in Ireland, it and finished on a fast downhill section towards Kilgarvan.
Service in Kenmare was followed by a further trip over the same loop of three and the rally concluded with a run over Moll’s Gap before the winners accepted the laurels on the podium at the Gleneagle Hotel.
Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy used Melyvn Evans’ S12B
