Last weekend’s Kenmare Historic may have had a smallish entry, but it was still a successful rally, and the participants seemed to have a ball and that is what it is all about. Ray Cunningham, co-driven by his wife Elaine in their Mini Cooper S, came back from a two year lay-off to dominate the proceedings with Phillip Wylie/John Young a very creditable 2nd in the MGB. Sprightly OAP Mervyn Johnston, with Wendy Blackledge on the notes, was 3rd.

The weather up to the start of the rally was atrocious with the Sheen River flooding the finish of stage 3. Happily on Sunday, although very cold, conditions weren’t too bad. Every stage ran ‘on the button’. Yorkshire man Sean Lockyear, with David Kempley co-driving, took the Post Historic section from Denis & Dan Moynihan in their Mk1 Escort. Consolation for the Moynihans, who had closed to within 1 second of the Porsche starting the final Inchimore test, was winning the Thomond Crystal Southern Four Historic Championship.

Diarmuid Lynch from Glenflesk had a great drive to win the Classic section. Diarmuid, who had Mark Horgan co-driving, survived a couple of spins and was put under pressure by Mark Falvey. However, Diarmuid pulled away in the 2nd half of the rally to win by 35 seconds. Mike Quinn, with Grainne McEnery co-driving as usual, won the Modified section his Escort finishing 38s ahead of Barry Meade’s similar example.

Meanwhile on the Grizedale Stages, which was won by Paul Bird, Mark Donnelly was the highest Irish finisher in 9th. On the Galloway Hills Adrian Hetherington was 3rd, Seamus O’Connell was 5th, Shane McGirr 6th, Mark Donnelly 8th and Raymond Donnelly 10th.

Also last weekend, Chris Patterson, co-driving for Misfer Al-Marri in an Impreza, was 3rd on the Dubai International Rally which was enough to net him the Middle East Co-Drivers Championship, his 5th Middle East Rally Championship title. Kris Meeke was awarded the ‘Rookie of the Year’ Award by David Coulthard at the prestigious Autosport awards evening in London’s Grosvenor Hotel. This capped a fantastic year for the young man from the Bush Crossroads, as to be an award winner at the Autosport Awards evening means that he really has arrived. Kris said, "It has been a very special year for me". Also at the Autosport Awards evening Colin Turkington was presented with ‘National Racing Driver of the Year.’ Kris Meeke has confirmed that he has definitely signed with Peugeot for next year and the first event on the calendar is the Monte Carlo Rally.

An interesting angle to that is that Mikko Hirvonen, who was voted International Rally Driver of the Year at the Autosport presentation, will take the opportunity in the gap before the start of the WRC to drive the new Ford Focus Super 2000. The new Ford is the first of the Super 2000’s to be built to the new regulations and allows a slighter wider track, which may or may not be a good thing. The engine is being built by French company Pipo Moteurs who build the engines for the World Rally Focus’ and although the basic engines are the same, there are of course a lot of differences in the specification. Similarly with the McPherson strut suspension, although Ford is using the same company, Reiger, the rear suspension of the Fiesta is completely different from the Focus and the struts are not allowed to employ roller bearings. Still, it could be quite a car.

There is automatic registration in the IRC, so Hirvonen could take points away from another driver if he does well, but what effect it would have at year’s end there is no way of knowing. Ford must also be looking forward to 2011 and this S2000 will then form the basis of the WRC car which supposedly will be the same basic vehicle but with a 1.6 turbo engine.

At The Champions of Irish Motorsports Awards lunch in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, sponsored by Dunlop, Ari Vatanen and his wife Rita were the special guests. They provided the icing on the cake of what was a very prestigious event. Among the highlights was Motorsport Ireland announcing a €50,000 award to young Craig Breen as the Young Rally Driver of the Year in conjunction with the Billy Coleman Award and €50,000 to Patrick McKenna as the Young Racing Driver of the Year. Ari Vatanen spoke of the great similarity between Irish and Finnish motorsport and always living his dreams, which included his rally exploits in Ireland where he always feels at home. Craig Breen’s father Ray accepted Craig’s award on his behalf and the smile on his face grew even broader when a text message came through that Craig had just won the International Fiesta Sporting Trophy Shoot Out in Cumbria. Craig’s prize is a year at M-Sport, which he sees as another step forward in his World rallying ambitions.

Patrick Elliott collected his National Championship award, and Cavan man Patrick told us that he plans to compete on the opening three rounds of next year’s series, but will not commit beyond that until he sees how his building contractors business is going. Trevor Harding got the Forestry series award and he plans to contest the BRC series next year. The Manley Memorial Trophy for ‘International Driver of the Year’ was jointly awarded to Keith Cronin and Kris Meeke. Paul Nagle accepted the award on behalf of Kris who was unable to attend. Arthur Kierans/Ashley McAdoo got the ‘National Navigation Trial Champion’ trophies. John Naylor almost got emotional when he accepted the Ivan Webb Memorial Trophy in appreciation for his services to Irish Motorsport during his six year tenure as President of Motorsport Ireland. John dropped a very strong hint that Joe Corcoran would be taking over the role of President in January.

Former BTRDA Silver Star Champion Frank Kelly is getting a new 5 cylinder Italian Lancia/Fiat sourced engine for his famous blue Mk2 Escort. The engine is being built by Dr Keith McMullan at Cork University. Frank reckons the new 2 litre engine won’t have ultimate outright power, but should have bags of torque, which is just the job for forest stages. Dungannon man Frank plans to do some Southern forestry events and also the Scottish series in 2010. Although he is unhappy with some aspects of the Scottish forest events, he feels he has spent a year learning the ropes there and wants to give it a go for another season. As Frank took a break from fitting security cameras, he commented, "The BTRDA events are mostly in Wales and have great stages and very friendly organisers, but the level of competition amongst the Escorts is very high in Scotland and I want to give it one more go. The ANCRO Championship is looking very good now as well and we’ll maybe have a look at that the following year."

Castle Motor Club member Gary McNamee is well under way to the completion of re-shelling his Peugeot 205 GTi. He rolled the car at a recent Cavan MC Quarry Cross. Gary, who is just 17 and is sitting his leaving certificate this term, has the assistance of three engineering classmates and together they are enjoying the practical experience in the workshop. Apparently they think it’s M-Sport, but with loud music, spanners everywhere and chicken & chips!

Next season’s ALMC stages rally is making every effort to combat these tough economic times by again reducing it’s entry fees, which for 2010 are being brought down to €485. The nine stage event, scheduled for the 18th July, is again based in the City North Hotel, which is located just 20 minutes up the M1 from Dublin airport.

Also looking forward to next year, the Fiesta Sporting Trophy in Ireland is set to continue, with the first day of each of the six Tarmac Championship rallies to be counting rounds. The points will be declared at the end of the first day and the Fiesta competitors have the option then of continuing on the 2nd day to score Tarmac points if they so wish. The series is open to existing 2 litre cars as well as the new model R2. Prize money on each round ranges from a healthy €750 for 1st down to €75 for 8th. The overall winner at season’s end will get a run in the new R2 Fiesta on the Condroz Rally. The registration fee is €700, which includes four free tyres. The UK Fiesta series will be split – the Fiesta Sporting Trophy will allow Fiesta ST and Fiesta R2’s and will basically follow the British Championship, plus the Malcolm Wilson Rally. There will also be a Fiesta Sport Challenge, which will be for Fiesta ST’s only and have one less rally.

Cork Motor Club is having its annual Christmas Quiz on Tuesday 22nd December at the Commons Inn Hotel at 8.0pm. The main aim of the quiz is to be a light hearted fun night and also raise a little money for charity.

Galway Motor Club is well advanced with plans for the Safety Direct Galway International Rally (5th, 6th, 7th Feb). There will be 3 stages on the Saturday run three times and 2 stages on the Sunday run three times. The Friday night ceremonial start and the finish will be in Oranmore and the centralised servicing will be in Oranmore Pre-cast. It is still too early to know how the Galway entry will shape up, but there are indications that Tim McNulty is going to enter in his Impreza WRC and Tim always adds a frisson of excitement!