Motor SportThe Irish motor-racing season gets into gear on Sunday with the first clubman championship races of the year at Mondello Park, for which there is a strong entry in Formula Vee, Formula Ford, Strykers and Historics as well as Fiat Punto and Uno racing saloons.
Robbie Parks is the pre-season Formula Vee contender driving a Sheane. He faces a strong challenge from former champion Ray Moore and racing car constructor Paul Heavey in Leastones.
Journalist and broadcaster Declan Quigley returns from covering the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix to drive the Sheane in which he scored three wins last season. The 10-race programme also includes non-championship races for Porsches, saloons and Formula Libre.
The Tipperary club's Seán Conlon Memorial Rally on Sunday is Round Two of the McCauley Trailers National Forest Stages Rally Championship, run out of Mitchelstown, Co Cork.
Subaru drivers Kevin Lynch, Brian Murphy and Pat Norris took the first three places in the Carrick-on-Suir MC's opening round. Former champion Dermot Kelly crashed his Ford Escort WRC and John McCarthy also crashed out in his Toyota Corolla WRC.
In addition to the overall championship contenders, 12 drivers will compete for honours in the Ford Ka Championship, including Corkmen Gordon Coleman and Brian O'Mahony and newcomers Daniel Barry (Wicklow), Pat O'Connell (Cashel), Mark Buckley (Cork) and Kieran Daly (Charleville).
For the first time the opening round of the MSA British Rallycross Championship starts in Northern Ireland, at Kirkistown tomorrow, with Round Two on Sunday at Nutts Corner, Co Antrim.
Kirkistown hosted the first Northern rallycross in 1970 but rallycross ceased at the Co Down venue in 1990. Peugeot Supercar driver John McCluskey (Dublin) praised the updated Kirkistown rallycross course: "The track flows nicely, I think it's among the fastest tracks in the championship and with a couple of good overtaking places, it should provide great racing".
Reigning British champion Dermot Carnegie heads the entry in his Ford Focus, and will have hot competition from Irish champion Mike Manning, Will Gollop, Pat Doran. John McCluskey and Lawrence Gibson.
WEEKEND FIXTURES
Saturday: British Rallycross Championship, Round One, Kirkistown, Co Down, noon.
Sunday: Tipperary LC & MCC, National Forestry Rally Championship, Round Two, Mitchelstown, Co Cork, 10.30; British Rallycross Championship, Round Two, Nutts Corner, Co Antrim, noon; Limerick MC Autotest, Askeaton, Co Limerick, noon; Carlow CC, Clubman Championship Motor Racing, Mondello Park, 2 p.m.
