Cork driver and four-time British Rally Champion Keith Cronin will campaign the new generation Hyundai i20 R5-N in this year’s British Rally Championship that includes rounds of the World Rally Championship (Wales Rally GB) and the European Rally Championship (Rally Ypres).

One of the most scenic locations in the country, Achill Island, provides the backdrop for the opening round of the Triton Showers Rally Championship on Sunday.

Dovetailing the Triton Showers National Rally Championship and the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Championship doesn’t pose any huge problems for Monaghan’s Sam Moffett, who leads the former and is second in the latter. It’s an interesting combination as he drives a Fiesta WRC in the National series and a Fiesta R5 on the Tarmac campaign.

Following a winter of uncertainty, Irish rallying springs into action tomorrow with the Corrib Oil Galway International Rally, the opening round of the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Championship.

The two most prestigious awards within Irish motorsport were presented to the sport’s brightest talents last evening as Monaghan’s Josh Moffett, 24, scooped the Billy Coleman Award for the Young Rally Driver of the Year while Ciaran Carey, 22, from Rathoath, Co Meath, won the Sexton Trophy for the Young Racing Driver of the Year.

Although Donagh Kelly’s debut in a Ford Fiesta R5 lasted just shy of the halfway mark in the Grizedale Rally in Cumbria, the Donegal driver was impressed with the car and has vowed to give it consideration in his plans for next season.

Donegal’s Donagh Kelly (Ford Focus WRC) would happily trade all his rally wins and even his Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Championship and the Triton Showers National Rally Championship titles for success in the Joule Donegal International Rally that gets underway today.

A new dawn breaks for the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Rally Championship on its opening round, the Corrib Oil Galway International Rally, which gets under way tomorrow.

Tyrone’s Kris Meeke and his Killarney co-driver Paul Nagle have ended weeks of speculation after they confirmed they are to remain with Citroen for the next three seasons.

Donegal’s Donagh Kelly (Ford Focus WRC) crowned a magnificent season with victory on the Acesigns Signmakers Cork “20” International Rally, the final round of the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Championship.

There was double delight for Donegal’s Donagh Kelly (Ford Focus WRC) as he clinched the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Championship with victory in the Todd’s Leap Ulster Rally in Enniskillen. 

The Joule Donegal International Rally that begins this afternoon is the best-supported event within the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Championship and also the only three-day event in Irish rallying.

Former Irish National and Tarmac Group N champion, Kerry’s Alan Ring, admits that it’s taking him time to adjust the power and pace of the Mel Evans S12B Subaru WRC. 

Motorsport: Kelly and Flanagan Donegal’s Donagh Kelly and his Derry co-driver Kevin Flanagan (Ford Focus WRC) won the Colm Quinn BMW Galway International Rally, the opening round of the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Championship.

Motorsport: It’s six years since a Tarmac champion made a successful defence of the series.

Irish and Welsh contests are nothing new in the Quality Hotel West Cork Rally and Denis Cronin and Daragh O’Riordan will have Welsh ace Melvyn Evans as their most formidable opponent when the 13-stage event starts in Clonakilty tomorrow.

Leader of the Carryduff Forklift Northern Ireland Rally Championship, Antrim’s Derek McGarrity (Subaru WRC) has dual targets in tomorrow’s Newry based Modern Tyre Service Mourne Rally.

The FTSE 100 Index is to lose another female chief executive after Cynthia Carroll announced she is to step down as boss of Anglo American.

Local hero Darragh O’Riordan (Subaru WRC) bids to record back-to-back wins in this weekend’s Orchard Motorsport Cork ‘20’ International Rally as Armagh’s Darren Gass (Subaru WRC) aims to seal his inaugural Irish Tarmac title with Fermanagh’s Garry Jennings, the only other driver that can win the title, a doubtful starter.

The changing dynamic within the Topaz Donegal International Rally brings a different expectation as Irish Tarmac Championship leader Darren Gass (S10 Subaru WRC) drives away from the Letterkenny start ramp this morning.

Group sales at building materials giant CRH are up 4% in the year to date on a like-for-like basis, but the group’s earnings have been dragged back by under-performance in its European operations.

CRH is understood to be unlikely to move for any of the UK assets that road surfaces company Tarmac is being instructed to sell, despite speculation to the contrary.

Irish Tarmac Rally champion Tim McNulty welcomes the challenge of Sunday’s Safety Direct Galway International Rally, the opening round of the series.

IT’S a case of experience against youth for the top two seeds in this weekend’s Donnelly Group/UTV Drive Circuit of Ireland Rally.

REIGNING Dunlop National Rally champion, Mel Evans and current Irish Tarmac championship leader, Tim McNulty, both in Subaru WRCs, go head to head in Sunday’s opening round of the Dunlop series, the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel Rally that also marks the beginning of the Top Part West Coast Rally series.

Tarmac owner Anglo American and France’s Lafarge today unveiled plans to pour their cement, aggregates, ready-mixed concrete and asphalt operations into a new UK joint venture.

ALTHOUGH Gareth MacHale (Ford Focus WRC) leads the Citroen Irish Tarmac Championship and is the best placed of four drivers to win the title, he is also the driver under most pressure ahead of this weekend’s final round, the Cork ‘20’ International Rally.

THE Tarmac Rally Organisers Association (TROA) meet in Dublin on Sunday against the backdrop of a changing demographic in the Irish Tarmac Championship. The top contenders in the ITC have stated that the series should continue without any dramatic changes.

ROUNDS of the Irish Tarmac, National and British Rally Championships take centre stage over three days beginning today with the former and the latter dovetailing on the Rally Isle of Man International.

Eugene Donnelly, one of the most successful drivers in Irish rallying has been forced to end his bid to land a record breaking fifth successive Irish Tarmac title.

THE Irish exchange dropped 117 points yesterday to 6,859 as the banking and constructions stocks fell into negative territory.

Reigning world champion Sebastien Loeb won his third successive Rally Catalunya to cut championship leader Marcus Gronholm’s advantage to six points.

The London market closed deep in the red again today as poor payroll figures in the US knocked already fragile investor confidence.

British Airways received a much-needed boost today after better-than-expected first quarter results caused its shares to surge.

AS the freed marines and sailors lined up to face the world’s media, the enormity of their ordeal appeared to hit them.

GARDAÍ have warned elderly people not to deal with a gang of criminals who forced a woman in her 70s to hand over €7,500 for a Tarmac job — which was substandard and probably worth just a few hundred euros.

British rally champion Mark Higgins and his Letterkenny co-driver Rory Kennedy in the Fitz Samuel Insurance-backed Subaru WRC have won the Cork 20 International Rally, the final round of the Pirelli Irish Tarmac Championship.

Derry driver, Eugene Donnelly and his Sligo co-driver, Paul Kiely in their Toyota Corolla delivered a double victory in Armagh.

Mining giant Anglo American was today said to be preparing to break itself up.

WITH an air of expectancy, the Pirelli Irish Tarmac Championship season begins tomorrow with the First Choice Flooring Galway International Rally. Several top drivers are involved in some type of change, a factor that adds further intrigue to the first of the eight round series.

Profit takers pounced on blue-chip stocks today as a downbeat opening on Wall Street sparked a late sell-off on this side of the Atlantic.

THE Motorsport Commission, the top committee within Motorsport Ireland, will have a new chairperson next season.

At the conclusion of an exciting first leg of the Quality Hotels West Cork Rally in Clonakilty, former