With Plans firmly falling into place and the organising team in the Munster Car Club Busy in preparation for this year’s event which will be based from the Town of Fermoy a steady stream of entries have begun to come in and as expected the quality of entry is yet again of a very high standard.
On that list and newly crowned Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Rally Champion Donagh Kelly is coming to the last round of the Championship in Cork to show the Fans why it is he has been at the forefront of Ireland’s premier Championship over the last number of years. Although the Donegal man will not have it all his own way with a welcome return from Welsh Driver Melvyn Evans who will be behind the wheel of his Subaru S12B W.R.Car. In an interesting twist, and a driver that will really shake up things is Melvyn’s son Meirion who recently acquired a Citreon DS3 and he will not be far off the top of the time sheets in that particular class and I know the People of Fermoy will make this welsh crew very welcome over the Rally Weekend. With the introduction of New Rules in the T.R.O.A Championship for 2016 onwards it will be the R.5 Cars eligible to score points for the overall Tarmac title and again the event has attracted even at this early stage some of the top pilots in the country none more so than former Billy Coleman award Winner Stephen Wright in his very potent Ford Fiesta R.5 Spec car. Stephen a man that will always be at the top of the time sheets will be closely followed by drivers such as Joe McGonigle who is really going well in his Skoda Fabia S2000 and has won recently in the Northern rally Championship. The Group N Class so far has a number of very quick men signed up such as Clonakilty’s David Guest in his Ex Owen Murphy Mitsubishi Evo 9 who has Donegal man Paddy Robinson calling the notes. They will be closely followed by the Waterford Cork pairing of Brian O’Keefe and Sean Hayde in there Subaru. This class will be very exciting as the Championship has not yet been decided and comes down to the last round it will be a shootout between Brendan Comiskey and Aaron McHale.
As with all Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Rally Championship events the Modified section will attract the Leading modified men in the country and so far names include Ed Murphy, Youghal man Jason Ryan , the very rapid Vince McSweeney, Jason McSweeney in the class 20 Evo.9, New York resident Paul Rowley,former Irish tarmac Rally Modified Champions Noel O’Sullivan and Nicky Burke one of the longest paired crews in Irish rallying.
The Historic section will be fiercely contested as always and some of the names in so far include Ernie Graham,Washington James and Nick Barnett.
Ger Seaman
Press & Media Officer
Acesigns Cork 20 International Rally