Motor sport: Niall Maguire has stamped his mark on this year's Dunlop National Rally Championship with a second and a win from the two opening rounds to lead the series on 38 points from fellow Monaghan driver Adrian McElvaney on 29 points.
Ray Breen of Kilkenny is third on 28 points and has made a great comeback driving a Subaru in place of the Metro 6R4 he rallied some years ago.
Fourth overall behind the leading Subaru drivers is Cahal Arthurs in a Hyundai Accent WRC on 24 points. England's James Harrison was unfortunate to crash out of round two in Monaghan, and lies seventh in the standings on 16 points.
Harrison is possibly the one driver capable of stopping Maguire from winning the championship for a third time, but Maguire will be hard to beat on what is effectively home turf in Sunday's Cavan Rally.
Forestry championship leader Kevin Lynch, Patrick Elliott, Seán Gallagher and Maurice Gass in Subarus along with Glen Allen in a Ford Escort WRC complete the top 10 in a full entry.
The Cavan event is also a round of the Quinn Border Championship, in which there is currently a triple tie between Niall Maguire, David Leonard and Bernard McGinley on 20 points. All three are also class leaders.
A varied programme of 15 races is listed for tomorrow at Kirkistown, where the major attraction will be rounds five and six of the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) Historic Sportscar Championship.
Sponsored by Charles Hurst Jaguar of Belfast, the two races will feature a priceless line-up of sports cars such as Lister, Jaguar, Maserati, Lotus and Lola.
Mullingar driver Morgan Dempsey will be chasing championship points in two of the day's events. First, in the Formula Ford championship, which he leads on 30 points, three clear of Victor Gibson, and then in the Dunlop Supercars series, where he lies second on 25 points, two adrift of leader John Farrelly.
Irish drivers Dermot Carnegie in a Ford Focus, John McCluskey in a Peugeot 306 and Lawrence Gibson in a Metro 6R4 will be in the hunt for honours in Round four of the British Rallycross Championship at Knockhill in Scotland on Sunday. Five times champion Carnegie won at Knockhill last year, but Gibson currently leads the series.
Meanwhile, in Holland last weekend, Irish driver Michael Devaney continued his good form in the German Formula Three Cup with another win in the series to add to his maiden victory two weeks ago.
This time the win came in round four of the Cup at Assen in Holland and, coupled with a fifth place in the weekend's second race, the performance puts 19-year-old Devaney in command of the series, seven points clear of his nearest rival.
WEEKEND FIXTURES
Saturday: 500 MRCI, Motor Racing at Kirkistown, Co Down, 11 am; MEC, Sporting Trial, Barretstown Castle, Ballymore Eustace, Co Kildare, 12.30 pm; Cork MC, Autotest, Vernon Mount, Cork, 5 pm.
Saturday and Sunday: Co Kildare MC, 4x4 and Sporting Trial Challenge, Cardrown Forest, Mountrath, Co Laois, 11 am; Southern KC, Kart Racing, Portumna, Co Galway, 8 am.
Sunday: Co Cavan MC, Cavan Rally, starts Hotel Kilmore, Cavan, 11 am.
