MOTOR SPORT / Column: Dermot Carnegie starts the final round of the 2005 Irish Rallycross Championship with a six-point lead over George Tracey, and the Dublin driver will only have to finish fourth or better in the 'A' final to add to his impressive list of championships.
Carnegie won the first of a record 10 Hewison Trophy autotest championships in 1967 and his last in 1986. His record was only recently equalled by Eamonn Byrne.
In rallycross Carnegie has won a record six British titles, and was runner-up in this year's series. He has scored numerous wins in over five decades of competition, including rallying and autocross, and now turned 60 his competitive edge is a keen as ever.
Racing will be fast and furious, too, in Sunday's supercar feature, with Carnegie, Tracey, Christopher Evans, John McCluskey and Helmut Holfeld all chasing a Mondello Park victory. McCluskey has a slim mathematical chance of lifting the championship, but he would need a win and a retirement from both Carnegie and Tracey.
The recipient of the Dunlop Sexton Trophy for 2005 will be announced by Motorsport Ireland on Tuesday next.
The final three selected for the prestigious trophy and the €32,000 first prize in the Dunlop Young Driver of The Year scheme are Charlie Donnelly (Naas), Peter Dempsey (Ashbourne) and Paddy Hogan (Killiney). Donnelly won this year's UK Formula Ford 1800 Championship.
Dempsey has won a record 31 races and four championships in Formula Ford 1600 and was recently nominated best single-seater racer on the UK circuits in a Top 10 pole cunducted by the newspaper Motorsport News.
Hogan had mixed fortunes but won races in British Formula Renault.
Dunlop National Rally Championship: 1, R Breen 67 points; 2, C Donnelly 54; 3, K Barrett 43. Top three in the Quinn Border Rally Championship: Adrian Fox/Phillip Tobin; Shane McFeely/Jim McGrath; Raymond Conlon/James O'Reilly.
WEEKEND FIXTURES: Saturday: Munster MC & CC, Navigation Trial, starts Owenahincha Hotel, Rosscarbery, Co Cork, 11.00pm. Sunday: Carlow CC, Rallycross, Mondello Park, 10.30am; Co Cavan MC, Autocross, off Ballybay-Cootehill Road, Co Cavan, 11.00am.
