Motorsport Ireland positive ahead of government meeting on WRC plan

Motorsport Ireland president Aiden Harper 

Motorsport

Government officials will meet representatives of Motorsport Ireland on Tuesday in relation to the possible hosting of a round of the World Rally Championship next year. The Irish governing body is seeking funding of €15 million based on a three-year plan following an internal process that has identified three locations to host the service park and media zone on a rotational basis.

Motorsport Ireland president Aiden Harper told the Irish Examiner, “We are meeting government officials Tuesday morning and in the afternoon along with the WRC Promoter we (Motorsport Ireland) are meeting representatives of the three areas, Tralee MTU, Limerick Racecourse and Waterford Quays."

Harper is pleased with how discussions have advanced ahead of a crucial meeting in early March, “We won’t have good news until we have a signed signature on a contract but there are no questions coming back on our submission which is good.” 

During the revelation of the decision to rotate the hosting of the event between three venues, it was stated that an investment of €15 million over three years would generate €300 million and would attract some 250,000 spectators.

Meanwhile, a report on WRC.com reveals the economic impact of last year’s Rally Finland, based in the Jyväskylä region. It said, “This year, the rally and its related events, brought over €19 million to the region. Of that, €14.6 million are direct revenues from tourism, i.e. money spent by visitors arriving from outside of the region. This is a very significant result, as the amount of direct tourism revenue has increased 51% from the comparable study conducted in 2017.” 

The event attracted a total of 267,000 visitors - a number calculated as the total headcount “through the gate” 

Meanwhile, within 12 hours of the opening of entries for next month’s Clonakilty Park Hotel West Cork Rally, the organising Cork Motor Club received over 130 entries.

Elsewhere, the Dunmanway based Skibbereen “100 Isles” Navigation Trial, a counting round of the National Navigation and Munster Navigation Trials series saw no fewer than six crews finish with a clean sheet. Victory was awarded jointly to the West Cork duo of Brian O’Mahony/Amy Gallwey (Subaru) and Passage West natives Ray and Stephen O’Neill (Subaru) by virtue of their semi-expert status and equal cubic capacity of their cars. However, there was controversy as O’Mahony/Gallwey were recorded on the master sheets with a wrong approach to TP2 south of Dunmanway, however, this infringement wasn’t shown on their time card and as per the regulations and as no clarification was issued by the organisers, the competitor’s time cards took precedence. Several time points were cancelled due to inadequate information.

Junior World rally champion William Creighton was pleased with his outing on Saturday’s Rally LBC-Ruschen where he drove his M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally2 as an official course car. The Moira ace gained valuable experience ahead of this weekend’s Rally Sweden, the second round of the World Rally Championship. “It was the perfect test, we made good progress with the car and I think there’s more to come as we build up the confidence.” 

Skibbereen “100 Isles” Navigation Trial (Rounds of the Motorsport Ireland National Navigation Trial & Munster Navigation Trial) Dunmanway: =1. B. O’Mahony/A Gallwey (Subaru Impreza) & R. O’Neill/Stephen O’Neill (Subaru Impreza) 0pens; 3. A. Shinnors/Denis O’Donovan (Subaru Impreza) 0pens; 4. A. Mackarel/G. Shinnors (Subaru Impreza) 0pens; 5. C. Duffy/S. Johnston (Subaru Impreza) 6. P. Duffy/E. Hughes (Subaru Impreza) 7. M. Phelan/A. Phelan (Subaru Impreza) 1pen; 8. J. French/C. French (Subaru Forster) 2pens; 9. S. McHugh/E. Creedon (Suzuki Ignis) 7pens; 10. O. Murphy/S. Maguire (Subaru Impreza) 15pens.