Irish duo looking for change in fortunes

WITH their home event just a week away, Irish drivers, Colin Turkington and Gavin Smith will be hoping to improve their current positions within the British Touring Car Championship in Sunday’s three rounds at Croft.

It hasn’t been the best of season’s for the pair, Turkington is currently sixth, 88 points off the lead held by Honda’s Matt Neal, while Smith is four places further behind.

Their team-mate, the vastly experienced, Yvan Muller is also in need of some points as the Vauxhall outfit step up their bid.

In the support races, Donegal’s, Damien Faulkner leads the Porsche Carrera Cup GB and he can embellish his position ahead of the Mondello visit.

The return of the British Touring Car Championship to Mondello Park is being supported by Halfords and will feature the biggest grid of the season.

The championship leading outfit, Team Halfords have a busy week ahead. After the Croft races in England they head to head to Dublin for an appearance at Halfords Blanchardstown store next Friday.

Tickets for Mondello are currently available at advance purchase discounts from www.ticketlord.ie.

Sean Devine (Subaru WRC) heads up the entry for tomorrow’s Devine Construction Lark in the Park organised by the Maiden City Motor Club. The entry includes Group N WRC Champion, Fermanagh’s Niall McShea in a Mitsubishi Evo 9 and former winner, Denis Biggerstaff (Metro 6R4). The first of the five special stages in the confines of St. Columb’s Park starts at 10.30am. In addition, there is a “shoot out” for the £750 cash prize for the fastest time of the day. Cahal Arthurs (Hyundai Accent WRC), Martin Doherty (Subaru), Maurice Gass (Skoda WRC), and Ivan Stewart (Escort Cosworth) are just some of the other entries.

Also this weekend, the Midland Motor Club host a double header in the National Autocross series at Doon, Ballinahown starting at 11am each day.

The Wexford Motor Club are staging a Sprint at Campile at 1pm.

The Limerick Autotest at Barna, Newcastle West starts at 12.30pm and the TDC Autotest at Harristown, Navan has an 11am start.

Nineteen-year-old, Peter Dempsey has been named as the June winner of the Dunlop Young Racing Driver of the Month Award. During the month he won five races and presently leads the MotorSport Vision Formula Ford 1600 Championship in Britain.

He has won ten of the eleven races in the series and also leads the Northern Ireland FF1600 Championship. The former karter is the third of six drivers to be selected for the prestigious 32,000 Dunlop Motorsport Ireland Young Racing Driver of the Year Award.

Ronayne O’Mahony (20) picked up his best result of the season to date with a sixth place in last week’s International British Formula 3 International Series at Monza. In the second race he was lucky to stay in the race after a fellow competitor lunged inside the Dubliner, who had to take evasive action and dropped to 26th place. He made a spirited recovery, passing 16 cars to finish 10th overall.

In the third and final race of the weekend, he was battling for a top ten place but was shunted off the track.

As part of the club’s contribution to “Rally 4 Charity”, the Skibbereen and District Car Club are hosting a rally night at the Marine Hotel, Glandore on Wednesday night next at 9.00pm. In car action from a number of drives will be screened. A framed one-off print of Colin McRae, the former World champion pictured in his Mk. 2 Escort on the Killarney International Rally of the Lakes will be a amongst a number of items that will be auctioned along with an entry to the 2005 Marine Hotel Fastnet Rally.

The protests lodged by both Dunlop Championship leader, Ray Breen and championship contender, Charlie Donnelly are currently being examined by Motorsport Ireland’s Review Committee. They will decide if the protests are valid and if so, a Court of Appeal will be set up as quickly as possible. The decision of the Review Committee is expected within the week and should it

recommend the matter to a Court of Appeal, that sitting, according to a Motorsport Ireland spokesperson should, hopefully, be concluded by mid-August.

Former Billy Coleman Award winner Shaun Gallagher has received a grant of 7,500 from Motorsport Ireland and the Irish Sports Council as part of a Stranding Scheme. It is in recognition of his results to date including his Group N victory in last month’s Donegal International Rally.