irishcar.com

26 June 2002: The fourth round of the 2002 Ford Ireland KA Rally Championship, the Ravens Rock Rally based in Waterford City, will get under way next Sunday, with 14 Pirelli-shod Ford KAs battling for overall honours on this traditionally fast event.

As the Ford KA Rally Championship reaches the halfway point, Gerry Keyes from Crecora, Co. Limerick in the O’Dwyer Steel/PJ Matthews/Lyons of Limerick Ford KA currently leads the Championship, with a twenty-seven-point advantage over his nearest rival James Eivers from Cork. David Lyons also from Limerick lies in third position only one point in arrears to Eivers. With thirty points on offer to the victor of each round and each crew can drop one score, Keyes has to take another maximum score to secure his position at the head of the Championship leaderboard.

"The Championship is developing into a great battle, I had to fight every inch of the way to secure my current Championship lead. My Ford KA performed faultlessly all year, Pirelli tyres have been brilliant, the whole package has worked perfectly. However I cannot afford to relax at this stage there is still a very long way to go and Motorsport is very unpredictable at the best of times" said current Championship leader, Gerry Keyes.

"We are expecting some really good competition at the Ravens Rock Rally, all the KA drivers are very enthusiastic, the stages in Waterford will be very demanding for both man and machine" said Tom Collins, Championship co-ordinator.

"The competitiveness of the Ford Ireland KA Rally Championship has been proven, as each of the competitors have only been separated by a few seconds and we have had new names topping the time sheets on each event on each event so far this year" said Declan Foley, Ford KA Brand Manager.