Motorsport Ireland Congress told that change is coming

Pat Finn Head of Motorsport in Motorsport Ireland speaking during the MI Congress in Athlone. Picture: Michael Chester.

Delivery of the Strategic Structure Review undertaken by Motorsport Ireland and next season's Irish Motorsport calendar were the main features of Saturday's Motorsport Ireland Congress in Athlone.

It was a first congress for MI Head of Motorsport Pat Finn, who spoke to the Irish Examiner following the conclusion of the annual event where media were, once again, not allowed to attend. On the review he said, "It's still a work in progress, the process so far has been very thorough. I would say it's evolving as time goes on."

The purpose of the review by Davis Business Consultants (led by Paul Davis) is "to make changes that support a stronger, more sustainable future for Irish motorsport."

A findings report document was followed by a recommendations report - that was issued to the clubs and different stakeholders and has led to some tweaking.

Mr. Finn revealed that while the review has yet to be formally adopted by the Irish Motorsport Federation, changes to Motor Sport Commission (MSC) and indeed the IMF are seemingly inevitable.

Understandably and although Mr. Finn was reluctant to be more explicit, he added, "It's an emerging model. The composition of the Motorsport Ireland board (the new name for what is currently the IMF) is going to change. We're going to stop calling it the IMF board as (IMF) sounds like something separate to Motorsport Ireland."

The new emerging structure (board) will include eight people from within the motorsport community, three of whom will be club nominees. As Mr. Davis explained the process during the morning presentation, questions on costs were dealt with by Mr. Finn, who said, "I took that question today, it is in the region of €50,000 to €60,000. It's likely to be a similar figure for the implementation period. All going well, that should, subject to the agreement, see a launch in January 2028. Support from Sport Ireland is expected to reduce costs."

Mr. Finn stated that it's very clear that clubs want change. "It is about modernising the governance structure. It's going to cost money and the cost of not doing it is far greater than the actual cost."

The Irish Examiner has learned that not everyone is in agreement, seasoned figures feel that they have been down this road (with previous plans) before but those plans didn't come to full fruition.

Mr. Finn added, "We're not good enough in terms of modern day governance standards, we haven't been (good) at setting the clear terms of reference, clear role descriptions for every role within the organisation. That's something that the new plan absolutely promises to tackle. So everybody knows their role, everybody, every group knows the job they should do and what it's limited to. Equally, every role, every person taking up a role is handed a role description to say, here's what you're expected to do. And you're not expected to do anything outside of this." 

Interestingly, most of what Mr. Finn emphasised were outlined in the 16 recommendations given by Cork City Coroner last August at the conclusion of the inquest into the death of Dunmanway's Eoin McCarthy following an accident during in the Killarney Forest Rally in 2022.

The adoption of the 2027 calendar led to heated exchanges when the Clare Motor Club sought to change the date of the Clare Rally (August 29). An initial date and a subsequent date were both refused in what seemed to be a situation of musical chairs as the club were informed that they have to remain on the original date that was agreed several months ago.

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Meanwhile, Clonmel's Casey J Coleman and his Emyvale co-driver Killian McArdle finished seventh on the Rallye de Granada, the final round of the Spanish Gravel Championship. Their RLA Autosport run Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 ran faultlessly throughout the eight-stage event. Running tenth on the road they had to contend with copious amounts of dust from the preceding cars.

Finland's Roope Korhonen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) led from the start and with five stage wins finished 7.3s ahead of the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 of Finnish driver Mikko Heikkila.

Coleman utilised the rally as preparation for a full campaign in the top tier of next season's European Rally Championship. He continues his pre-ERC programme with an outing in the two-day Rally del Brunello in Italy at the end of the month.