TOMMY Graham and Halmot Holfed are joint leaders on 70 points (each) of the Manor Inn Winter Rallycross Championship at Mondello Park, after three rounds. Norman Beggs is third on 67 points, followed by Lloyd Spendlove (62), Peter Faulkner (60) and Lawrence Gibson (51).
Sunday will see the running of the finals of a well supported and competitive series, leading up to the British Championship rounds at Nutts Corner, Co Antrim and Mondello Park on April 27th.
Irish drivers figured very strongly indeed in last Sunday's Compomotive Wheels British Championship event at Croft, won by Will Gollop. But the English driver, a European and British Championship winner, had no less than five Irish drivers hot on his trail, in the order Dermot Carnegie, John Moloney, Denis Biggerstaff, Peter Faulkner and Norman Kittle. Helmot Holfeld won Group N.
Dublin driver Richie Holfeld is contesting this year's Mintex British National Rally Championship, competing in Group N with a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution III. His first event was last weekend, the Bournemouth Winter Rally run over 18 stages in southern England. Holfed and his English co driver Ian Grindrod were a creditable 17th overall and third in Group N. Their next outing is in the Granite City Rally run out of Aberdeen on April 12th.
Peter McCullagh, navigated by Vincent Fergus, finished fifth in last Sunday's Willie Loughman Memorial Trophy Rally run out of Carrick on Suir over 12 very treacherously slippery forest stages in south Tipperary. This was good enough for McCullagh to win the RIAC National Forest Rally Stages Championship on a tie breaker with Noel Driver, who was placed 10th in the final round. The Carrick event was won by Kevin O'Kane by just 16 seconds from Richie Curran, driving Ford Escort Cosworth and Sierra Cosworth, respectively.
Matthew Griffin, Irish Junior Karting Champion, has signed with top European kart manufacturer ZIP to contest this year's British Junior Championships. The 15 year old Cork driver has entered for the Super One Series' but may now switch to contesting the highly prestigious McLaren Mercedes Champions of the Future' series. Griffin is in for a hectic schedule as he will defend his Irish title with Brennan Racing and race in the Italian Championships, as well as doing his Junior Certificate exams in June.
Dundalk and District MCC's annual road races will be staged over a new road circuit on June 14th/15th. The new two miles circuit is at Faughart, just north of Dundalk.
This year marks the 90th Anniversary of the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy motorcycle road races. Irish riders have a remarkable record of TT successes, scoring 76 wins since Alec Bennett's victory in 1922. Stanley Woods won 10 TT's between 1923 and 1939, a record that was finally broken by Mike Hailwood in 1967.
Joey Dunlop holds the all time record of 21 TT wins, adding two more to his tally last June. The Ulsterman celebrates his 45th birthday this February.
