Ireland does not have a World Rally Championship event, but anyone in the Mitchelstown-Kildorrery area tomorrow and around Macroom-Millstreet on Sunday could well think otherwise. Indeed, the quality of the Irish-run cars in the weekend's Cork 20 International Rally would do more than justice to a WRC round.
Ian Greer, winner in 1998/99, leads off the capacity entry in his new Toyota Corolla WRC ahead of Andrew Nesbitt in his championship winning Subaru Impreza WRC, Austin McHale in the Toyota Ireland Corolla WRC, Frank Meagher in a Ford Focus WRC and Kenny McKinstry in an Impreza WRC.
Cork will be well represented by Donal O'Donovan and Liam McCarthy in Toyota Celicas, and Frank O'Mahony in an Impreza. Sean McArdle and Joe McGurk will also drive Celicas, and Britain's Niall McShea should be very quick on the tarmac stages in the two-wheel-drive Citroen against the 4wd's. Ford Escort Cosworths will be driven by Peadar Hurson and Connie Smith.
The Cork rally format is eight stages on both days. Greer's chances of a hat-trick will depend on how quickly he gets to grips with the car which he recently acquired in Italy. Nesbitt has won the Tarmac Rally Championship and with no pressure to win points, he can go all out for victory. McHale is more than anxious to finish on a high note before he competes in the San Remo World Championship event at the end of the month. Meagher will push hard for the win that could give him a `semiworks' Ford drive for 2001.
This weekend the Leinster Motor Club celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Leinster 200 motorcycle and Leinster Trophy car races held on the Wicklow-Rathnew Circuit. The lap record for the 8.34 miles road circuit was set by Reg Armstrong on a 500cc Gilera at 92.38mph in 1955. Peter Whitehead in an Aston Martin set the car record at 88.31mph in 1957. Mike Hawthorn won the Leinster Trophy in 1951 driving a modified Riley of pre-war vintage with great skill and daring.
Tomorrow there will be a display of cars and motorcycles at the County Buildings in Wicklow town, from 11 a.m. to 2.30 p.m. A monument commemorating the Wicklow races will be unveiled at Whitegates at 2.30, followed by a parade of period cars and motorcycles around the circuit. A timed sprint for cars will be held on Sunday, starting at 2 p.m., over a 1.4 miles course on part of the old circuit, from The Beehive to Wicklow Town. The entry of around 90 includes several historic cars from David Dunne's awesome 1929 Bentley to an Alfa Romeo Monza, 27 Formula Vee's, the new Wicklow-built 1800cc Sheane-Rover, reigning hillclimb champion Karl Cleary in his Metro 6R4 and former champion Jenny Kennedy in a Crossle.
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