Such is rallying's current popularity that the Carlow Car Club has about 280 applications for a maximum of 150 places for Sunday's Seven Oaks Hotel Stages Rally. The event starts just after 8 a.m. and reigning champion Niall Maguire and championship-leader Paul Harris are the top seeds.
Harris leads the Dunlop National Championship by 24 points over Denis Cronin, with George Cullen third.
The Carlow event is also round three of the Ford Ka Rally Championship which is jointly led by James Travers (Kilkenny) and John O'Dowd (Moate) with 56 points each. Oisin O ' Briain is making his rally debut as a "guest driver" which will be more like a baptism of fire as and he will be under pressure to perform in this very competitive class.
Galway Motor Club's two rounds of the Dunlop Hillclimb Championship will be run on the Corkscrew hill near Lisdoonvarna tomorrow and on Sunday on the Ballyallaban hill. Karl Cleary will start as favourite.
A crowd of around 100,000 will line the 8.9 miles Portstewart-Coleraine-Portrush circuit for tomorrow's International North-West 200 motorcycle road races. English star Davie Jefferies set a new 122.26 mph lap record last year on a 1000cc Yamaha, and then went on to win three Isle of Man TT races. He will be joined by Scottish stars Iain Duffus, Jim Moodie and Callum Ramsey. The Dunlop brothers head the home entry, along with the likes of Gary Dynes and Dubliner Mark Curtin.
