Irish duo compete in Spain

MOTOR SPORT:Niall Breen (Dundalk) and Niall Quinn (Dunboyne), two of the three finalists (along with Paddy Hogan) for the Motorsport Ireland/Dunlop Young Racing Driver of The Year award, compete in this weekend's Dell Formula BMW World Finals at Valencia in Spain.

Breen dominated the British Formula BMW Championship, in which Quinn was third in the Rookie Cup. Breen also finished second in the Formula Renault Winter series.

With no points recorded from six races, Michael Devaney (Dublin) and John O'Hara (Kildare) have a mountain to climb to put Ireland on the scoreboard of the A1 Grand Prix series. Mexico on 24 points lead Germany 22, Britain 20, Italy 19 and Malaysia 17 going into Sunday's double race at Sepang in Malaysia.

Ian Barrett (24) from Maynooth, Keith Cronin (20) from Bantry and Owen Murphy (19) from Ovens, Co Cork, are the three rally finalists for the Motorsport Ireland Billy Coleman Award for 2006. Like the racing driver award, the rally prize is 32,000. The runners-up are awarded 8,000 and €4,000, respectively. The results will be announced at a function in Dublin on December 5th.

Pirelli is withdrawing its title sponsorship of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship. TROA (Irish Tarmac Rally Championship Organisers) and Pirelli (tyres) have together enjoyed three successful years of rallying at a hugely competitive and popular level.

Don Wilmont, championship manager said: "We are parting on very amicable terms, our relationship with Pirelli over the last three years has been good for the championship".

Martin Pallot, Pirelli public relations and events manager, stated: "We have had a good three years with TROA as title sponsor. We will continue to support the Irish Tarmac Championship and will explore all areas where we can optimise this support. We felt the time was right for Pirelli to cease its sponsorship of the championship as TROA decide on a new direction for the series. We wish everyone involved in the series well and would like to thank all of the organisers, teams and marshals of the championship for their help and support."

WEEKEND FIXTURE: Sunday-Skibbereen & District CC, Navigation Trial, starts Ballycatten, Timoleague, Co Cork, 12.01am.