Following another operation to repair the damage to his arm , badly broken in last year’s Manx International, former Tarmac Champion Derek McGarrity has at last regained his fitness and intends to compete on this weekend’ Circuit of Munster rally. Derek hopes if all goes well to drive on the Shell Donegal International. He has also just been passed as fit  to fly his beloved helicopters, which was a big step forward for the Glengormley man. Derek plans to drive a new Prodrive Impreza WRC S12 on the Munster event. LATEST: Derek has now withdrawn from the Circuit of Munster as he feels he is not up to the necessary fitness to drive the rally car.

The Circuit of Munster is a round of the Top Part South West Championship, and has a attracted a good entry, including Denis Cronin and Liam McCarthy in their respective Impreza WRC’s. Colm Murphy, fresh from his top result on the Jim Clark, is the top seeded GpN entry in his Impreza. The rally base is the Woodlands Hotel in Adare, while the stages are outside Newcastle West in the Mountcollins area.  Aaron MacHale currently leads the South West championship but is not on the entry list which opens the door for 2nd and 3rd placed Alan Ring (Impreza N) and Mark Courtney (Celica).

Austin MacHale and his son Gareth were on hand to support Aaron MacHale win last weekend’s Cavan Rally. Gareth seemed none the worse for his Sardinia Rally accident. Austin stated that it would be a race against time to get Gareth’s Focus rebuilt in time for Donegal. Aaron has now moved into the lead of the Dunlop National c/ship by 1 point from Glenn Allen with Patrick Elliott 3rd.

Brendan Crealey and his co-driver Gregg Shinors are to tackle this weekend’s Severn Valley Rally, as a warm up for the Monaghan Forestry. Their ex-Rory Galligan Lancer has now been fully rebuilt by ADR following their accident on the opening Hankook Irish National Forest series event at Carrick on Suir.

Entries are reportedly coming in well for the 10^th June Monaghan Forestry event, following earlier doubts if the event could run on schedule. Indications are that next year’s forestry series event dates will  will need to be ‘re-jigged’ to fall into line with Duchas/Coillte and an extended (April 1^st – Aug 31^st) hen harrier nesting period.

The North Armagh Motorcycle and Car Club, in conjunction with the Armagh Lions Club held a prestigious press conference this week at Stormont Buildings to cofirm details of this weekend’s Festival of Motorsport at Loughgall. Former World Champion Bjorn Waldegard was due to fly in from Sweden and be re-united with his Safari winning Escort. Bjorn will be one of the star drivers on this Saturday’s motorsport spectacular.

Kris Meeke switched from starring in front of the cameras last weekend to setting them up, when he was asked to fly out at the last minute and look after the Micro-Cam on-board cameras on the Barbados Rally. Kris, a qualified engineer, found the technicalities no problem. The young Dungannon man stated last week that an appearance on the Shell Donegal was looking unlikely although the decision was not final. The demand for entries in Donegal has been enormous and includes Sebastion Loeb in the works Citroen.  LATEST: Andrew Nesbitt is now reported to be using the Impreza that Kris Meeke drove to victory in Killarney.