With just under four weeks to go until the Garda Síochána Motor Club Germaine's Hotel Mini Stages Rally takes place on November 8th, the organisers have already received entries from over 120 crews for the Baltinglass-based event. The line-up will include a number of former winners, while two past champions of Irish rallying have also put their names down to tackle the Wicklow stages. Donagh Kelly, who won both the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship and the Motorsport Ireland National Rally Championship in 2015, will take part in a BMW M3, while Welshman Melvyn Evans, National Champion in 2010, will debut a Subaru Impreza 555.
Former Irish Tarmac Rally Champion and National Rally Champion, Donagh Kelly, will be among an all-star line-up for the Germaine's of Baltinglass GSMC Mini Stages Rally on November 8th. Photo: D Harrigan Images.
Kelly began his rallying career in the UK while working in Scotland in the mid 1990s. He started out in a Vauxhall Nova, before progressing through a variety of more powerful machinery, including a Ford Puma Super 1600, a variety of Mitsubishi Lancers and a Subaru Impreza World Rally Car. It was his his time in a Ford Focus WRC which brought him his greatest successes throughout Ireland, including four wins on the West Cork Rally, two on the Killarney Rally of the Lakes, and one each on the Galway, Ulster, and Cork '20' Internationals, as well as numerous victories on National events. Nowadays, he concentrates primarily on historic rallying in the BMW, including rounds of the FIA Historic Rally Championship across Spain, Belgium, Czechia and Italy. Kelly has won the prestigious Killarney Historic Stages Rally for the past two years, and is one of quite a number of drivers who will be using Baltinglass as a shakedown for the 2026 Killarney rally, which will take place at the end of November. He will be guided by fellow Donegal man, the vastly experienced Rory Kennedy, who has himself won four Tarmac Championships as a co-driver.
Melvyn Evans is also among those who will be using the Baltinglass Rally as a 'dress rehearsal' for Killarney. He has restored a Subaru Impreza 555, and the Wicklow outing will be his first in the car, which was originally built by the Prodrive outfit in Oxfordshire. Prodrive operated Subaru's World Rally Championship team, and the 555 iteration of the Impreza was the first version to hit the stages towards the end of 1993, later bringing Colin McRae to the World Rally Championship title in '95.
Melvyn Evans, a former Irish National Champion, will debut a newly rebuilt Subaru Impreza 555 on the Germaine's of Baltinglass GSMC Mini Stages Rally. Photo: Melvyn Evans Motorsport.
Evans has been a longtime supporter of rallying in this country, often travelling from his base in Dyfed to compete on this side of the Irish Sea. He has tasted victory in all four provinces in Ireland, in England, Scotland and Wales, and on the Isle of Man. His rally preparation company has had considerable recent success in the British Rally Championship, providing the cars that have brought drivers Matt Edwards, Osian Pryce, Chris Ingram and William Creighton to the title in four of the past five years. Melvyn's son Meirion, and Pryce, currently occupy second and third positions in the 2026 BRC standings going into the final round in their Melvyn Evans Motorsport Toyota Yaris GRs. Kris Meeke took victory last month on Rali Ceredigion, a European Championship round, in a Melvyn Evans Motorsport Yaris.
Speaking at the recent launch of the rally at Germaine's Hotel, Clerk of the Course, the event’s Clerk of the Course, David McCormack, expressed his delight at the positive response from competitors. “I’m happy with the entry this event has already attracted,” he told those assembled. “For this type of Mini Stages Rally, that is, two stages repeated three times, we are allowed to run a maximum of 140 cars, so we’re well on our way to filling that." He urged all crews hoping to take part to get their entries as soon as possible, to guarantee a start rather than a place on the reserve list.