Richard Warbrick of
Dunlop Ireland has confrmed that Dunlop will again sponsor
the ever popular National Championship for next year. At the
prizegiving last Saturday night in Galway’s fabulous Clayton
Hotel, Warbrick commented, “ The Championship is the envy of
many throughout Europe, and the clubs have made it what it
is today.” The series will again consist of 10 rounds, and
entries are being allowed to increase from 151 to 161, with
more priority for Championship contenders, particularly
overall and Class 4.
Aaron MacHale, who is
also very much involved in road safety campaigning,
collected the overall Dunlop National Champions Award, and
Killian Duffy the co-driver’s prize. Aaron, who is getting
married to Grainne in June 2008, plans to contest most of
the Dunlop National rounds next year, and is hoping to take
in a couple of Global Group Tarmac Championship counters as
well, possibly Galway and Killarney.
Austin MacHale and
Gareth were there on Saturday night to give Aaron full
support, but neither Austin or Gareth would give any firm
indication of what their plans are for next year. Gareth was
of course the highest placed Irish driver on the recent WRC
Rally Ireland, and welcomed the news that the rally will be
the opening round of the 2009 World Rally Championship.
Doubtless the foundation stones of the planning can be
carried forward to this new event, but as well as new
funding, there will surely be a mountain of paperwrk and
planning once again.
Michael Curran and
his co-driver Fabian McShane collected the top GpN awards
for the Dunlop Championship, including our Pattersons
RallyNews crystal. Michael, like Gareth MacHale, is leaning
towards continuing to compete on the Dunlop National series
in ’08, as the comparitively little time required off work
is a great attraction, let alone the fact that the series is
very enjoyable, as well as competitive. Michael would
however like to compete on a couple of Tarmac Championship
events as well with his Lancer Evo9.
Seamus Leonard was
one of Michael Curran’s closest competitors for the GpN
honours during the year, and Seamus confirmed that he is
planning to take delivery of a new Evo 9 for next season,
but intriguingly didn’t rule out the possibility of a couple
of runs in an Impreza WRC S9.
Interestingly, there
didn’t appear to be a lot of interest amongst the top Lancer
drivers regarding the new Irish Evo Challenge, which will
take in the Galway International, West Cork Rally, Killarney
Lakes, Donegal International, Wexford and Cork ‘20’. The
overall prize consists of funding towards an entry on a WRC
round.
Frank O’Mahony,
speaking on behalf of the Motorsport Ireland Rallies
Committee at the Dunlop awards evening, confirmed that some
of the rally changes for 2008 would include a National
Junior Championship based on four asphalt rounds, three mini
stages and one multi stage plus four events from the Hankook
Forestry series. Another change is that the Billy Coleman
Award would be a class based competition in 2008.
There was a Fiesta
Sporting Trophy open day at RallySchool Ireland this week,
where Jonny Greer put one of the 2-litre ST Fiestas through
its ‘demo’ paces for prospective competitors in next year’s
Championship. There wasn’t a big turnout of new competitors,
and around 12 Irish crews are expected to compete next year.
This will be boosted to a possible 20 on some rounds, when
the crews from the UK, who will be taking in both series
with a view to success on a combined series.
19 year old Jonny,
winner of the UK series this season, intends to contest both
Fiesta Championships in ‘08. Jonny observed that, although
he enjoyed driving the Lancer on Wales Rally GB, he also
really enjoys the Fiesta. He is in for a treat in January
when he is to drive one of Steve Perez’ Focus WRCs on the
Red Kite Rally. His brother Barry is also intending to
compete in the Fiestas, as is Alastair Fisher, winner of the
Irish series this year.
Both Barry and and
Alastair received a new Fiesta apiece this season for
winning, although the overall prize for next season is not
yet decided. Ciara Conlon, who celebrated her birthday on
Tuesday, was on her very last day with M-Sport as she looked
after the Fiestas along with her replacement Richard
Millener, pointed out that the prize money per event remains
the same, €750 for 1st down to €75 for 8th. The
prize money for the UK series is £750. down to £75 for 8th.
Following the announcement that Pirelli has come in to
sponsor the MSA Gravel Championship in the UK, around which
the Fiesta series is based, it is not at all certain that
the Fiestas will continue to run on BF Goodrich rubber. The
Irish events are:- Galway (Feb): UAC Easter Rally: Killarney
Rally of the Lakes (May): Donegal (June): Ulster (Aug) and
Cork ‘20’ (Sept).
A further development
in the pipelane for the Fiesta Sporting Trophy is that the
cars may run on Bio Ethanol fuel (85% ethanol and 15%
petrol). The Sporting Trophy International series will run
on bio-ethanol in ’08, and the UK and Irish series cars may
well follow suit at some time in the future.
Another calendar out
for Christmas is the Seamus Counihan example, containing a
stunning array of photographs from the Tarmac and National
Championships.
Ballymena transport
man Alan Carmichael normally rallies a Lancer but is
treating himself to a run in one of Kenny McKinstry’s
Impreza WRCs on the Rallye Sunseeker in February.
Finally for now,
congratulations to Derek Brannigan and his wife Sharon on
the birth of a fine 8lbs 3 oz baby boy, Philip. Top
co-driver Derek is going to have give the new arrival some
rally tuition – he was 11 days late!
