In a week where the FIA announced changes to the World Rally Championship for 2017, the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship Organisers (TROA) were hit with a backlash to their proposed rule changes for 2016 — a ban on the current World Rally Cars from winning the series — with the announcement that the Donegal International Rally was withdrawing from the series.

Point-To-Point racing returned to Tralee racecourse on Saturday as the North Kerry Harriers meeting took place at the now-defunct Ballybeggan Park venue.

As the World Rally Championship moves to higher temperatures in Rally Guanajuato Mexico in stark contrast to the two rounds in Monte Carlo and Sweden, the Irish crew of Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle in their Total Abu Dhabi Citroen DS3 WRC know they have to stop making the type of mistakes that have already cost them valuable championship points.

Rally Italia Sardegna, the penultimate round of the World Rally Championship, continues today against the backdrop of the withdrawals of two manufacturers and a change in driver line-up.

Revival is the central theme to the weekend events in both rallying and racing.

Dunlop National Rally Championship leader Thomas Fitzmaurice will battle a strong overseas contingent at Sunday’s ALMC Rally in Meath and Louth.

REVIVED just three years ago, tomorrow’s Tyre Stop Kerry Rallysprint has already found a perfect niche in the motorsport calendar.

THE Quaife British Rallycross Championship and Summer Rallycross dovetail at Mondello Park on Sunday, where reigning Irish champion Tommy Graham will have plenty of opposition in the Supercar division.

OVER two years since he last competed, five times Irish Tarmac champion Austin MacHale makes a return to action behind the wheel of a BMW M3 on Sunday.

HORSEPOWER of a different variety will reverberate at the Tralee Racecourse tomorrow for the Tyre Stop Kerry Rallysprint.

SOME 23 years after he won the event, Tralee’s Donie Horan headlines Kerry Motor Club’s Tyre Stop-backed Rallysprint tomorrow at Tralee Racecourse. The 46-year-old makes his first competitive outing since the mid-1980s and will drive a hired Mitsubishi Evo9.

AN Bord Pleanála has deferred until January 30 a decision on a massive €250 million shopping development for Tralee.

A MOVE to allow some cash-strapped Kerry golf clubs to build holiday homes on courses has been stymied by the local authority.

ROSE of Tralee bosses last night judged the festival a roaring success after taking a gamble on switching the spectacular to a new home.

Tralee’s five-day festival got off to a belated start after a bomb scare caused the first race to be delayed by almost 45 minutes.

IT would be an exaggeration to say that this weekend is make-or-break for the Aidan O’Brien-Jamie Spencer combination, but the importance of Haydock and the Curragh should, nevertheless, not be underestimated.

Caroline O'Doherty

THE THREATENED Tralee racecourse may win a temporary reprieve from a new business plan to be tabled to directors tomorrow night.