Reserves in:
Car 153 - Connie Lynch
Car 154 - Stephen Carey
Car 155 - Shaun Quin
Car 156 - Paul Fitzgerald
Car 157 - Emmet Callan
Car 158 - David Calnan
Car 161 - Anthony Madigan
Car 163 - John Moran
Car 165 - Paul Cloke
Withdrawals:
Car 12 - Eoin Doyle
Car 21 - John O' Donnell
Car 28 - Mark Nangle
Car 46 - Peter Hughes
Car 87 - Noel O' Sullivan
Car 134 - Noel McCarthy
Car 139 - Gearoid Beamish
Car 142 - Finbarr Hegarty
Car 145 - Jamie O' Flaherty
Car 159 - Johnny Fitzgerald
Car 160 - Jeremy Holland
Car 162 - Stephen Murphy
Car 166 - Eoin Creedon
Todd Falvey has withdrawn from the Historics!
The countdown is well and truly on for the Quality Hotels West Cork Rally which takes place next weekend, March 20th & 21st. A full entry has been received plus some reserves which is very pleasing to Cork Motor Club who promote the event. With 16 special stages and over 200km of stage miles, it will be a tough rally. 151 cars are allowed to start the main event on Saturday morning, and these will be led away by top seed and 2009 winners Liam McCarthy & Kieran Murphy in their Toyota Corolla WRC. Liam had been trying for many years to win his home rally and finally reached the top of the podium last year. Now that the duck has been broken, he'll be out to try to become the first driver since John Price in 1993 to take back to back wins on the event.
To do this however, he will have to deal with the challenges presented by a strong field behind him. Tim McNulty & Paul Kiely start at 2 in their Subaru Impreza WRC. Tim will be hoping to improve on his runner-up slot here three years ago, as well as getting valuable testing done before the Circuit of Ireland in two weeks time. If all runs smoothly he should be favourite to win the event. John Dalton & Gwynfor Jones are at three in the amazingly quick Darrian T90 GTR. John has been the top modified driver on the event since 2005, and after being runner up overall for the past two years will take some beating. If the weather is dry he will challenge the WRCs, however the Darrian is a handful in the wet.
Denis Cronin the current Southern 4 champion and 2005 West Cork winner is at 4 in his older model Subaru Impreza WRC. He will be hoping to carry on his good run in the south west having won the Fastnet Rally last October. Helen O'Sullivan will be back in the co-drivers seat having missed the Fastnet win. Michael Barrable & Dermot O'Gorman are at five in a Focus WRC. This crew haven't done the event since beating Tim McNulty in a close finish in 2007, but should be up there challenging for overall honours over the weekend. Hugh Hunter & Andy Marchbank are at 6 in another Focus WRC. Hugh was only in West Cork once before, in 1995. That year he retired having held a strong top ten spot in a Sierra Cosworth until well into the second day.
Current National Gp N Champion and former Tarmac Gp N Champion Kevin Kelleher is at seven co-driven by his brother Martin. They haven't done the event since 2007, but should be strong favourites to take Gp N here in their Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9. They are the highest seeded Clonakilty crew in the rally. J.J. Fleming & Robbie Ward are at eight in a Subaru Impreza WRC and will be hoping for better luck than in 2008 when they slid off the road early in the event. Generally though, J.J. has had a good record in the event over the years with some strong top six finishes.
Brian O'Mahony & John Higgins are at 9 in their Renault Clio S1600.
Brian was out of luck last year when his car developed engine problems on the way to scrutiny, and as a result he had to withdraw. Brian has always been quick on West Cork and the more potent machinery around him won't faze him. Rounding off the top ten is Daragh O'Riordan & Tony McDaid from Midleton who have made the transition from Renault Clio to Subaru Impreza WRC. It will be a steep learning curve for Daragh, but he has done the event a few times and this should help him get used to the car. If he adapts quickly he could easily improve on his 7th overall here last year.
Outside of the top ten there are drivers of the quality of Bob Fowden (the only driver to win the event three times), Eoin Doyle, Sean Flanagan, Billy McLelland, Adrian Hetherington and Washington James.
Other drivers that could feature heavily on the modified side of things are Ed O'Callaghan, Conor Curley, Neil Williams and Des Moore. Class 11 looks to be the most competitive of all, with some very fast local drivers augmented by the Honda Cup registered drivers. This is by far the most popular class in terms of numbers. Damien McCarthy, David Guest and Jason Ryan will be favourites here, but such is the strength of the class other drivers could well feature by Sunday evening.
The Historics will begin their rally on stage 5, led by Denis Moynihans Escort, followed by Todd Falvey and Rikki Proffitts Porsche 911s. Ed Murphy & Martin Sheahans Escorts should also be in the hunt. The Juniors Rally will consist of the final four stages of the event, and the top three seeds here are David Fleming, Billy McCarthy & Andrew Lehane.
Another attraction this year is the return of Slowly Sideways Ireland.
Nostalgic Group B and Group 4 cars will be on display here during the event in the shape of a Manta 400, Renault 5 Turbo, Fiat 131 etc. Two cars that will create special interest are the fire breathing Audi Quattro S1 driven by Dermott Simpson, and the Vauxhall Chevette HSR of Andrew & Alan Bushe. The Chevette is the original car as driven by Jimmy McRae on his way to 2nd place on the West Cork Rally in 1980 behind Billy Coleman. This was the competition debut for the HSR and proved a successful testing ground as Jimmy won the Circuit of Ireland in 1980.
30 years later the car will again appear on the West Cork stages and will no doubt bring back some great memories to those lucky enough to see it action last time around.
The ceremonial start on Friday night 19th March will take place at 7pm.
The Slowly Sideways cars and top ten from the main rally will parade through the town, to finish up in Deasys car park where Dougie Hughes will introduce each driver as he passes under the start ramp. It will be a great chance to see some of these cars and drivers close up and should add to the atmosphere in the town for rally weekend.
The action begins at 10am and finishes at 4pm both days. The stages for the weekend are as follows,
Saturday
S1&3 - Ballinascarthy
S2&4 - Clogagh
S5&7 - Ring
S6&8 - Dunworley
Sunday
S9&11 - Rossmore
S10&12 - Sams Cross
S13&15 - Ardfield
S14&16 - Hayes's Cross
Accomodation may still be sourced by contacting the Quality Hotel on 023 8836400, (00 353 23 8836400 from the UK) or logging onto their website at
www.qualityclonakiltyhotel.com. For more rally details please log onto www.corkmotorclub.com or www.westcorkrally.com.Kevin O'Driscoll
Press & Media Officer
Tel: 00 353 86 2866 256
Email: Kevin@westcorkrally.com
The following will have the 2010 Quality Hotels West Cork Rally programme at their premises.
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John Crowley's Shop, Clonakilty (near old Maxol Serv Station) |
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Noel White, Texaco, Clonakilty |
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Paddy Meade's Newsagent, Clonakilty |
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Dave McCarthys, Clonakilty |
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Scallys, Clonakilty |
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Hartes Spar, Clonakilty |
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Quality Hotel, Clonakilty |
|
|
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Foleys Texaco Service Station, Timoleague |
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Spar Filling Station, Skibbereen |
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Galvins, Dunmanway |
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Donovans, Ballinascarthy |
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Bandon Motors, Bandon |
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Kevin O Leary's, |
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Cahalanes Garage, |
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Coleman's Car Care, |
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Maxol Station, |
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Gerry Murphy, R&R Tyres, Ballincollig |
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EMO Denis Cronin Ballylickey |
Time and distance schedule for both Saturday and Sunday of the rally is now available.
And for those marshalling on the rally, a list of meeting points, complete with times, contact numbers and sat nav GPS co-ordinates can be downloaded also.
The 2010 Quality Hotels West Cork Rally has an oversubscribed entry with 162 in the Main field, plus 13 Historic entries and 22 Juniors. Full seeded list is available now to download.
Seeded List as PDF (quicker dowload) Seeded List in Excel
With less than two
weeks to go before the Quality Hotels West Cork Rally, Cork Motor Club are
delighted to announce that over 160 entries have been received to date for the
main rally. Juniors and Historics make up another 35 entries in what promises
to be a very exciting event.
Four former winners
have entered the event, namely Michael Barrable, Denis Cronin, Liam McCarthy
and Bob Fowden. Tim McNulty who ran Barrable so close in 2007 is also entered
to shake the car down before the Circuit of Ireland at Easter. Also WRC mounted
are J.J. Fleming and Hugh Hunter who cannot be discounted from the eventual shake-up.
Hunter was last in
The modified entry is
no less competitive, with the likes of John Dalton, Washington James, Des Moore
and Neil Williams all likely to be on a serious pace over St.Patrick's Weekend.
As usual there are a large variety of makes and models to keep spectators
interested. The Honda Cup first round is in Clonakilty and this brings Honda
Civics from different parts of the country to do battle. The event is also the
first round of the Southern 4 Rally Championship, where defending champion
Denis Cronin will be looking to get off to a good start.
The classic Group B
cars in the shape of Slowly Sideways will also be back in Clonakilty in 2010
after their successful appearance last year. This brings a sense of nostalgia
to the proceedings and provide the rally fan with a glimpse of the top cars
from years gone by. The Slowly Sideways cars will be in action on eight of the
events sixteen stages over rally weekend.
There will be a
ceremonial start in the town of
Accommodation may still
be sourced by contacting the Quality Hotel on 023 8836400, (00 353 23 8836400
from the
Kevin O’Driscoll
Press & Media Officer
Tel: 00 353 86 2866 256
Email: Kevin@westcorkrally.com
As the entry list for the Quality Hotels West Corik Rally is not full yet, it has been decided to extend the closing date until last post Mon 8th March.
Seeding will be done on the Wednesday, March 10th and posted on the web on Thursday, March 11th.
Final instructions will be posted to all competitors on Wednesday March 10th.
All those who have sent in entries to date should have recived a text to confirm that Cork Motor Club have recived it.
If you have not received a text contact the entry secretary.
Darren McCarthy. COC, Quality Hotels West Cork Rally
The new Fastnet Line Cork to Swansea ferry are offering a 10% discount for Cork Motor Club on all crossings for the year 2010.
All you need to do is mention Cork Motor Club and this discount will automatically be applied.
For any immediate bookings you can call our offices on 00 353 21 4378892 or log onto www.fastnetline.com
Entry fees for the 2010 Quality Hotels West Cork Rally are now available. As well as keeping the entry fees at the lowest in Ireland or the UK, competitors can also pay in Sterling. The rates are as follows:
Main Field entry fee: €630 - Stg£550 download Regulations
Historic entry fee: €480 - Stg£420 download Entry Form
Juniors entry fee: €330 - Stg£290
Regulations for Cork Motor Clubs popular two day event, the Quality Hotels West Cork Rally are now available to download from www.corkmotorclub.com. This will be the 32nd running of the rally and it takes place on the 20th & 21st March next. For the eighth time in succession the rally will be sponsored by the Quality Hotel Clonakilty which will be also be the Rally HQ..
There is a special atmosphere in Clonakilty and its surrounding areas around St.Patricks weekend which is helped by the influx of crews and spectators from all parts of
Cork Motor Club is pleased to announce that the entry fee is held at the 2009 price of €630 which is excellent value for 16 stages and 240km of competition mileage. Road mileage at 170km is again very low this year while service will be centralised as usual near Clonakilty.
As usual the rally is the first round of the Southern 4 Rally Championship, while this year sees the event being the first and second rounds of both the Mitsubishi Evo Challenge and the Honda Cup. The Bones O’Connor Modified Challenge is back for a fourth year in 2010 where many crews will be bidding to take the crown from John Dalton.
There will also be a Historic Rally which will begin on Stage 5 on day one; the cost of entry here is €480 while the Junior Rally will cover the last four stages of the event at a cost of €330. After the success of the scheme in 2008 & 2009, junior competitors are also reminded that if they go marshalling on the Saturday stages then they will get a refund of €100 on their entry fee. Both crew members have to take part to avail of this.
General Manager of the Quality Hotel Clonakilty,
Kevin O’Driscoll
Press & Media Officer
Tel: 00 353 86 2866 256
Email: Kevin@westcorkrally.com
Regulations and Entry Form for the 2010 Quality Hotels West Cork Rally are available to download now. Green are PDFs which are quicker to dowload.
Click Regs Here and Click Entry Form Here Click Regs Here in Word format
You must download both
