The success of last Sunday's first ever Punchestown Rally Masters is a pointer to an alternative to stage rallying. There is no substitute to traditional Irish rallying which is unique in these islands, but with rallying wiped out due to foot-and-mouth precautions, the only alternative to nothing is the running of stage events at venues such as the Punchestown Racecourse.

The next such event is the Cork Motor Club's rallysprint to be held at the Tipperary Raceway near Cashel on June 10th. With the co-operation of the owners, the event will be held over a two-miles stage, incorporating the hot rod racing track, each driver allocated three laps per timed session. Scrutineering will be in Clonmel on the Saturday, the rallysprint to start at 9.30 a.m. on the Sunday.

A big entry is expected. Details are available from Mary Hogan on 086-8454392.

The Lurgan Park Rally is a very successful established offroad event, and a quality entry is again lined up for this year's race on July 7th.

The planned rally stages event at Phoenix Park on July 28th is unlikely to happen, and may be transferred to a different location. The Phoenix Park motor races will be held a week earlier than originally scheduled, on July 21st and 22nd instead of July 28 and 29th.

Damien Faulkner scored a morale boosting round three victory on the Texas Motor Speedway and is all hyped up for Sunday's race on the Milwaukee mile track in Wisconsin. Before the Texas race he had never driven on one of the awesome American ovals. He started the Texas race from pole at an astonishing 183.593 mph.

Back on the Irish rally scene, we could have a resumption of the sport as early as August, possibly with the Tipperary Stonethrowers Rally on the 12th.