THE WORST fears that international rally cross is in danger of being lost to Irish motor sport are confirmed by a statement from Jacqueline Taylor, rallycross committee secretary.
It reads: "Due to mechanical problems and body damage at events over this past weekend the number of available cars for this Sunday's rallycross at Mondello Park is reduced and the event is postponed until later in the year. The postponed (or more likely cancelled) event is the "Rallycross European Masters Challenge", an invitation meeting which was to have replaced the traditional midsummer European Rallycross Championship round.
This is not just the writing on the wall, but rather the end of the road for the prestigious `Euro' event, which attracted many Continental, Scandinavian and British competitors and their support crews to Ireland over the past eight years.
There are only two more rounds of the Tarmac Rally Championship to be run - the Ulster on August 1st/2nd and the Manx Rally on September 11th/13th and Austin McHale cannot be beaten for championship honours.
At the wheel of the Castrol/2FM Toyota Celica GT4, McHale showed that he has lost none of his old flair, after too many years in the doldrums campaigning an older type Celica that was simply no longer competitive.
Bertie Fisher's only event this year was the AA Circuit of Ireland. The Ulsterman's Subaru Impreza has been sold to Tom Spence (sixth in Donegal) and its unlikely he will rally for the rest of this year, unless he competes in some selected World Championship rounds in a rentadrive Subaru.
Liam O'Callaghan failed to finish Galway and The Lakes, and his only points (10) were from finishing fourth on the Circuit of Ireland.
The ambitious Kanturk driver has sold his Toyota Celica GT4, reputedly to Poland, and has taken up the option to drive a Volkswagen Golf GTi in support of British Championship leader Alistair McRae (Scotland) and Tapio Laukkanen (Finland) on the two final rounds of the Mobil British series, the Ulster on August 1st/2nd and the Manx on September 11th/13th, which are also Tarmac Championship events.
ALMC, the former Aer Lingus Motor Club, has been invited to run their Montague Hotel Stages Rally as a Tarmac Championship round in 1998. The club has already confirmed that top Ulstermen Kenny McKinstry and Andrew Nesbitt have entered for this year's Laois based National Championship qualifier on August 24th.
The annual Dundrod 150 motorcycle road races will no doubt attract the usual big crowd to the 7.4 mile Ulster Grand Prix circuit. Last year, in perfect conditions, English rider Bob Jackson set a new lap record of 121.952 mph in winning the main race on a 750cc Kawasaki. He returns to Dundrod and will be challenged by Joey Dunlop on the 500cc Honda Grand Prix machine.
All the Northern road race aces - Derek Young, Owen McNally, Robert Dunlop, Adrian Archibald, Garry Dynes, Dennis McCullough and James Courtney - will be there, as will Dubliner Mark Curtin.
Round three of the Irish Motocross Championship will be held at Dundalk on Sunday, as will round five of the Irish Enduro (crosscountry) Championship which will be run out of Omagh.
