GALWAY Motor Club confirm that Statoil will again sponsor the Galway International Rally in 1997, which will be held on February 14th-16th. As usual this will be the opening round of the Tarmac Rally Championship, consisting of the home internationals plus the Manx.
The tarmac series dates are:
Galway International, February 14th-16th; AA Circuit of Ireland, March 28th-31st; Killarney Rally of the Lakes, May 3rd-4th; Donegal Rally, June 13th-15th; Ulster Rally, August 1st-2nd.
The Manx is usually held in September, but now there is a question mark over it being a tarmac championship round likewise the Cork 20 on October 4th-5th. If the Ulster organisers want to go all Formula Two and confine the Irish Group A cars to running way behind the British Championship contenders, it will have to lose tarmac status.
Good news for rally enthusiasts is that Austin McHale will contest the 1997 events with an updated Toyota Celica GT4, a similar model to Andrew Nesbitt's Donegal winner. The Rathcoole driver is a great favourite of the spectators, always spectacular and always giving of his best. His impressive record over many years of rallying includes the Circuit of Ireland and tarmac championship.
In recent years he has been out of it with an old type Gelica, no longer competitive against the latest Group A cars. In his latest car he will put the pressure on the likes of Bertie Fisher, James Cullen, Liam O'Callaghan and Andrew Nesbitt, which is exactly what Irish rallying badly needs.
Frank Meagher, another Circuit winner and 1995 Tarmac champion, has been out of rallying for most of this year. The Tipperary driver will wheel out his Ford Escort RS Cosworth in Galway, hoping to put in a good enough showing to attract the sponsorship necessary for a complete car and engine/transmission rebuild and the funding for the rest of the season.
The first big international motorsport event of the New Year is the Dakar Rally, which takes, place over the desert wilderness of North West Africa, and caters for cars, motorcycles and other four wheel drive vehicles. Four Irish motorcyclists will compete in the 1997 marathon - Dublin riders Nick Craigie and Vinny Fitzsimons, Richard Fair of Cork and Ulsterman Adrian Lappin.
Final placings have been issued for the Dublin and District MCC's 1995/96 Trials Championship, won by Stuart Martin from Ashford, Co Wicklow, who had a nine points margin over runner up Scott Barkley. A total of 44 riders scored points in the championship. Martin is one of the top up and coming trials riders having won his grade in the All Ireland and Southern Centre Championships.
The top six in the D&D Championship were: 1, Stuart Martin 135 points (Freeman Trophy); 2, Scott Barkley 126 (Armstrong Trophy); 3, Gordon Clarke 124 (Neville Carlyle Cup); 4, Eric O'Sullivan 101; 5, Philip Purcell 95; 6, Ross Darlington 92.
Sunday's Leinster MC Turkey Trial at Sloggers, Bohernabreena, in the Dublin Mountains, is a team event (starts 12.0). Co Cork hosts the Munster MC and CC navigation rally run out of Macroom tomorrow (11 pm) and a 4x4 Trial at Coachford on Sunday (11 am).
