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Irish Rallycross Awards Night |
 2009/2010 Motorsport Ireland
Irish Rallycross Championship
Awards Night
Green Isle Hotel, Naas Road,
Newlands Cross, Dublin.
Saturday 24th April 2010
7pm
Tickets €50
Dress; Semi Formal
Contact:- Anne; (086) 3035121
or Tom; (086) 8179664
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Irish Rallycross Championship Rd 6 Preveiw |
Rallycross Championship Round 6
Rallycross Cham pionship moves towards its climax at Mondello Park
The Irish Rallycross championship moves into its final two events this weekend with the Carlow Car Club presiding over Sunday’s championship round six. While the Overall championship looks likely to go the way of Supercar driver Tommy Graham, most other classes are still wide open with a number of drivers still in contention for each.
Graham currently leads the Overall championship with his Supercar Fiesta as well as holding a commanding lead in the Supercar class. In the overall standings it’s the fastest of the two wheel drive modified division cars which is his closest rival with reigning champion Michael Coyne just hanging on to Graham’s coat tails in his Vauxhall nova. Coyne trails by twelve points with just twenty available for a win and will be hoping for problems for his supercar rival in order to take the battle to the final race in two weeks time. Best of the rest are Supercar competitors Andrew Morris and David Dempsey who also trail Graham in the Supercar Class where Graham just needs to finish one heat to secure the title.
In the Southside Motor Factors Modified Division three drivers are separated by six points at the head of the field with Renault 5 pilot Barry McArdle leading the way following three straight wins. Michael Coyne has dominated this class over the past few years and while things have gone well for him in the Superfinal's which count for the overall championship he has had a tougher time in the Modified class finals. So far Coyne has only managed one win, at Pembrey in September, and currently lies third behind McArdle and Opel Tigra driver Dessie Tierney.
The closest championship battle is in the Jondol Junior Rallycross class where Mini drivers Paul Barrett and Simon Quinn are separated by a single point with Barrett on top. The strongest other contender is Andrew Patterson who lies seven points back from Barrett with his more modern Nissan Micra and sits ahead of the other two drivers who remain in with a mathematical chance of winning, Mark Francis with another Micra and Niall Murray in the sole Toyota Starlet in Junior Rallycross.
The Rathgar Motor Factors backed Stockhatch Cup is led by former champion Derek Tohill with reigning champ Michael Duke and double ‘09/’10 race winner Gordon Lynch as his closest challengers. In this the largest and most competitive of classes it is a lot easier to drop points than in some of the smaller divisions so Tohill’s lead will need some protection this Sunday if he is to remain in control for the final event of the year. Duke is the only one of the three not to win this season and he will be going all out to put that right and increase his challenge for a second title in a row.
Sunday’s event boasts a strong entry of more than seventy cars with six of the all action Supercars scheduled to take part, including the return of UK visitor, ‘Mad Mark’ Watson with his super quick Citroen Xsara WRC and local favourite David James with his Mitsubishi Evo. The event gets underway with practice at 09:15, the first of the heats at 10:15 and the all important finals scheduled for 15:30.
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TIMETABLE
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09:15
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Practice Commences
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10:00
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Practice Finishes
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10:15
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Heats Run 1
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11:45
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Heats Run 2
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13:15
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Lunch Break
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13:45
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Heats Run 3 |
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15:30
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Finals
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17:00
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Prizegiving
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Rallycross opens 2010 Mondello Park Season |
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Rallycross opens 2010 Mondello Park Season
After a long winter break this weekend sees the return to Mondello Park of the Irish Rallycross Championship. The popular series is set to kick off the Kildare circuits' 2010 racing action with testing on Saturday followed by round five of the 2009/10 championship on Sunday.
At the head of the overall points the close battle between Ford Fiesta Supercar driver Tommy Graham and the Modified Class Vauxhall Nova of reigning champion Michael Coyne, is set to continue with the pair separated by just three championship points. Despite both drivers failing to score at round three they are still well clear of the consistent David Dempsey and round three winner Andrew Morris who are tied for third place fourteen points down on Graham.
In the Supercar division Graham has taken four wins from four, with the Ford Focus of closest rival Eddie Kinirons taking the runner-up spot on the last three occasions. The Wexford pairing of Andrew Morris and Paul Pascoe, with their identical Subaru Impreza's, fill the next two spots ahead of the Mitsubishi Evo's of David Dempsey and Tom Kirwan.
Along with Michael Coyne, the other modified drivers will be hoping for a continuation of the dry conditions which have prevailed at every Mondello race so far this season in order to keep them in touch with the Supercars. Two wheel drive Modified cars currently fill six of the top ten championship positions having put up some very strong performances against their four wheel drive opposition this season. Michael Coyne, Barry McArdle (Renault 5 Turbo), Ian O'Connell (Mini) and Dessie Tierney (Vauxhall Tigra) have all managed podium places in the Superfinal with McArdle finishing second and third at the last two events. Within their own division it is McArdle who leads the way with Tierney and Coyne locked together in second place just a single point off the Renault driver.
Former European Rallycross Championship competitor Derek Tohill has been the dominant force in Stockhatch this season on his return to his old stomping ground. With three wins already under his belt another victory on Sunday would put Tohill well on his way to another title. Former Champion Michael Duke has been runner-up three times to move into second place in the championship just ahead of round two winner Gordon Lynch and Junior Championship graduate Robert Critchley. The Stockhatch class as usual will provide the biggest grid of the day with close to thirty drivers expected to line out.
Also continuing to perform strongly is the Jondol Junior Championship for fourteen to seventeen year old's. This relatively new initiative is starting to attract grids of almost twenty cars and despite its comparatively low speeds is able to compete with any of the faster classes in terms of excitement. Andrew Patterson leads the championship by a single point from Paul Barrett and Simon Quinn but when dropped scores are taken into account Quinn's three wins from four rounds put him in a strong position. Apart from these three, others to watch out for are Niall Murray, the only driver apart from Quinn to win a round this season, and Mark Francis.
Completing the line-up will be the Rallycars who unlike the Rallycrossers will run singly in qualifying before combining to race through the finals. Sunday's event gets under way at 9:15 with un-timed practice before the first of the heats commences at 10:15. The high point of the day will be the finals which will kick-off at 15:30. Admission is €15.00 for adults with children under 16 admitted free. Discount ticket vouchers are available through the special offers page of the Mondello Park web site.
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