Irish motor sport takes off this month like the proverbial March Hare. The Mayo Stages Rally on March 12th is the opening round of the new 14-round Dunlop National Rally Championship, with the Galway Stages two weeks later.
A month in advance of the West Cork Rally, the Cork Motor Club announce a capacity entry, including three-times winner Bob Fowden in a Ford Escort WRC and local crews Frank O'Mahony/Hugh McPhillips in a Subaru Impreza and Liam McCarthy/Ciaran Murphy in a Toyota Celica GT4. Eamonn Boland (Wexford) and Stephen Murphy (Carlow) will both drive Subaru Imprezas for the first time.
Boland will campaign a Ford Focus WRC in the forthcoming Tarmac Championship series of internationals. Championship leader Lawrence Gibson in his Metro 6R4 tops the entry for Sunday's rallycross at Mondello Park. Class leaders are: Davey Francis (Newtownards), Frank O'Connell (Sandyford), Michael Leonard Jnr (Naas) and Des Ryan (Athy) each with wins in all three previous rounds.
The motor racing season is due to get under way at Mondello on March 19th.
A number of changes have been made to the 2000 calendar, as follows: IMRC race meeting from April 24th to April 31st/ May 1st; MEC meeting from June 18th to July 15/16th; Carlow Car Club meeting from July 23rd to July 30th; IMRC 24 Hours 2CV race from July 29/30th to July 22/23rd.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)