EVENT: 3rd Rally Ireland.

WRC Round 15 of 16; PWRC Round 7 of 8.

DATE: 15-18 November 2007.

WHAT'S NEW IN IRELAND IN 2007?

• Almost everything! This is the first World Championship rally in Ireland, the first new country to hold such an event since Japan and Mexico in 2004.
• This is a cross-border event. Of the 14 stage locations, six are in Ulster (the British province) and eight are in the Republic of Ireland. Apart from occasions at Monte Carlo and Sanremo, no other event in the history of the World Rally Championship has had stages in more than one country. This event is sanctioned by Motorsport Ireland, the Irish motorsport federation.
• There were two trial rallies, in 2005 and 2006, both based in Sligo, with stages largely run in the same area, but the spectator stage around the grounds of Stormont Castle in east Belfast is completely new.
• This year, there are no fewer than five asphalt rallies in the world championship, the greatest number since 2003. The unique character of asphalt roads on this event is their narrowness and bumpiness, coupled with the island's traditionally unpredictable weather!
• The rally organisers are providing transport from Sligo to Belfast before the start and back again after the first stage. Official crew plus one person from each team are invited to fly there and back; additional people will use a coach arranged by the organisers; trucks will transport the rally cars.

WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT RALLY IRELAND?

• This is by far the most important motor sport event ever held in Ireland. It is also the first time that an international championship rally has been authorised on the special premise that it is to be a joint venture between two countries.
• Cross-border rallying extends into national sport.  The leading Irish championship is the Global Irish Tarmac series, which this year was won (again) by Eugene Donnelly in a Subaru. The Irish national championship was won by Aaron MacHale in a Ford Focus. The Irish forestry championship was won by Stephen Moore, also in a Focus.
• The men credited with the idea of Rally Ireland are Sean O'Connor and Ronan Morgan. Sean has been well known in recent years as Marlboro's commercial representative in rallying, but he is also well respected in Irish life, being related to two Irish Prime Ministers. The person largely credited with the political aspects of cross-border co-operation was Britain's former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain. In recent times, when Irish life has been recovering from a generation of troubles in the north, the basic social philosophy of the rally was one of building bridges in communal life. Ronan was for many years a successful international co-driver, particularly with multiple Middle East champion Mohammed Bin Sulayem.
• Beware some special differences. For example, if you see a speed limit saying 60, this might mean that you must drive more slowly than if you see one which says 40! The 60 sign will probably be in the Republic, where kilometres are used, the 40 in Ulster, where they still use miles. Official distances on the rally are given in kilometres. At a fuel station which says a litre costs 1.30, the fuel will be cheaper than one which says 95.9. In this case, the 1.30 will be Euros in the Republic, the 99.9 will be pennies in Ulster (where the British Pound is used).
• In fact, the cost of fuel is considerably cheaper in the Republic. Incidentally, there are no signs on the roads that you are passing from one country to the other, and virtually all border crossing buildings on main roads have been removed.
• This is a country where secondhand World Rally Cars find good and loving homes. No fewer than 36 of these cars are on the entry list.
• Not many Irish rally drivers have been successful abroad. The highest-placed driver in a World Championship rally was Billy Coleman, when he finished fourth on the 1985 Tour de Corse. His co-driver on that occasion was Ronan Morgan, now a promoter of Rally Ireland.
• Three Irish co-drivers have won World Championship rallies: most successful was Terry Harryman, with six wins alongside Ari Vatanen in the 1980s, followed by fellow Ulsterman Fred Gallagher's five with Juha Kankkunen and Bjorn Waldegard. Southern Irishman Ronan McNamee won the RAC Rally with Pentti Airikkala in 1989.
• Two Irish drivers have gained international titles: Ulsterman Niall McShea was World Production Car Champion in 2004, while southern Irish driver Shaun Gallagher won the Junior Rally Championship "Rookie" title in 2007.
• In pre-championship days, Ulstermen Ronnie Adams and Paddy Hopkirk each won the Monte Carlo Rally, while the southern Irish lady driver Rosemary Smith won the Tulip Rally in the Netherlands.
• Expertise to run this event comes from all over. Sporting Director is Kai Tarkiainen, formerly Sporting Director of Neste Rally Finland; Clerk of the Course Tom Walsh was in earlier days the manager of Billy Coleman; Deputy Clerk of the Course Fred Gallagher brings experience not only from his co-driving career, but also his similar work at Wales Rally GB; route co-ordinator Gordon Noble was one of Niall McShea's co-drivers during his victorious 2004 PCWRC champaign.
• Maybe the most active driver in the British Isles is Mark Higgins. He drove a Subaru World Rally Car to second place in the Global Irish series; he is also driving a Subaru Group N car in the British series and a Mitsubishi Group N in the Production Car World series. On the recent Ulster Rally, which counted for both the Global Irish and British rally championships, Higgins drove his Subaru Group N car, while Kris Meeke drove Mark's usual World Rally Car to victory. On this event, Mark will be co-driven by Scott Martin, his regular PWRC co-driver (and not by Rory Kennedy, with whom he has tackled events in the British Isles this year).
• Welcome to Sligo! It isn't a very big place: there are only 18,000 inhabitants in this small west coast regional town. The name comes from a local type of shellfish, while its most famous inhabitant was the poet WB Yeats, although the family of comedian Spike Milligan also lived here. There is a local airport, where the runway ends abruptly in the sea, and the only international flights come four times a week from Manchester with Aer Arann. Arguably, Sligo's most important international connection is being twinned with Tallahassee, capital of Florida state in the USA.
• Rally Headquarters is the Clarion Hotel, an imposing building in the northeast outskirts of the town, originally built as a specialist medical centre.
• Rallying is not new to Sligo. Both previous Rally Ireland events were based here, as is the Sligo Stages Rally. This year's Sligo Stages was won by Aaron MacHale in a Focus. Curiously, the 2007 event counted for the British federation's MSA Asphalt Rally Championship. So how did the British competitors do? Don't ask. The highest-placed MSA championship driver was John Price in his Metro 6R4, in 19th place. . .

TYRE SPECIFICS

• Number of sets expected: 7.
• Number of different tread patterns allowed: 2.
• Number of tyres which can be used during the event (including Shakedown): 47.
• Number of tyres which can be nominated for use on the event: 70.
• Maximum stage distance to be covered on same set of tyres: 59.95km (stages 2-4 and 5-7).

EVENT SPECIFICS

Route

• Total distance: 1196.25km (excluding the free transit from Belfast to Sligo).
• Number of stages: 20.
• Number of different stage venues: 14.
• Maximum number of times the same stage roads are used: 2.
• Stage distance: 342.34km.
• Stage surfaces: asphalt.
• Longest stage: 27.90km (stage 3+6).
• Highest elevation on stage: 420 metres (on stage 9).
• Central Service Park: Sligo.
• Shakedown Stage: 2.87 km long, at a location 6km east of Sligo.
• Ceremonial Start: none.
• Official Start: 1850 on Thu 15 Nov at Stormont, East Belfast; also the location of one publicity stage (total 1.82km).
• Superspecials: none.
• Stages in darkness: 1 (the opening stage).
• Restart times
• Thursday (1 stage, 1.82km) at 1850 from Stormont.
• Friday (9 stages,166.25km) at 0725 from Sligo.
• Saturday (6 stages, 118.36km) at 0630 from Sligo.
• Sunday (4 stages, 55.91 km) at 0700 from Sligo.
• Finish from 1418 Sunday at Sligo.

TEAM NEWS

CITROEN TOTAL WORLD RALLY TEAM (M)

• Did Citroen Sport's determined fact-finding entries in both Donegal and Cork 20 help them to discover the winning secrets for this event?

BP-FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM (M)

• Marcus Gronholm competed on the Galway International Rally early in the year, expecting this to give useful experience of rallying on narrow roads in wet and muddy conditions. He won the rally, but the weather was unseasonably dry and warm!

OMV KRONOS CITROEN WORLD RALLY TEAM (MT)

• A single entry this time. Citroen team driver Dani Sordo drove a Xsara WRC on the recent Cork 20 Rally for experience of this model of car on Irish roads. Francois Duval entered the event with a Xsara WRC as a privateer, hoping to provide tactical support for Loeb, but these plans fell through and he will not now be starting.

SUBARU WORLD RALLY TEAM (M)

• All three cars from the team will be those previously used in Corsica. Since Rally Japan, there has been a long test at the British MIRA establishment, with the emphasis on shock absorber work.

STOBART VK M-SPORT FORD RALLY TEAM (MT)

• This team has entered no fewer than SIX cars. In addition to the two Makes Championship nominated entries for Jari-Matti Latvala and Henning Solberg, there are entries for Matthew Wilson, Eamonn Boland, Gareth Jones and Ray Breen, but none of the latter three cars will carry Stobart VK livery.

MUNCHI'S FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM (MT)

• This team has not entered Rally Ireland.

NEWS

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP

• Gronholm starts the event with a four-point championship lead over Loeb. If the drivers finish the season equal on points, Loeb will be the winner under the tie-deciding rules. All points count in both drivers' and makes' championships.
• In the manufacturers' series, BP-Ford only need another five points to be champions, irrespective of the results of Citroen Total. Both series can be won in Ireland; equally, both can remain unresolved until Wales Rally GB.
• Important decisions emerged from the FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting on 24 October. There are to be only 15 rounds in the 2008 world series, the list including neither Poland nor Cyprus. Mexico will replace Australia in the list of 2008 events, while the existing World Rally Car rules will extend until the end of 2009. In 2010, cars will comply with either new or old rules (with necessary changes to the old rules to ensure parity of performance); only cars complying with the new rules will run in 2011.

PRODUCTION CAR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

• Three drivers are still in with a chance of winning the series: Arai, Pozzo and Higgins. Both Pozzo and Higgins are to enter the last two rounds in the series and each can theoretically score 20 more points. If it comes down to a tie, Arai has scored two wins in the series, Pozzo and Higgins have so far won the category on one event each.
• There are some changes for this event. The Team Jordan entry (the country Jordan, nothing to do with Eddie Jordan. . .), car number 48, will this time be driven by Ulster driver Philip Morrow, not by the Jordanian Amjad Farrah. Niall McShea is back at the wheel of the TaCK entry (car 53), but with a different co-driver, Marshall Clarke. His regular co-driver, Gordon Noble, is an official at this event.
• This is the seventh of eight events in the series, and drivers may contest only six. Two teams have already entered their six: car 31 (Subaru Team Arai) and car 38 (the second Syms RT car).
• The organisers have nominated two "Guest" drivers: Colm Murphy was Group N champion in the Global Irish Tarmac series in 2006 and 2007, while Alan Ring was the Group N national Irish champion in 2006. Both are Subaru drivers.
• Note that Oscar Svedlund, winner of the PWRC category on the Swedish Rally, is on the entry list, but this time as a non-championship driver. His other major success this year was winning the European Championship Polish Rally.

REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

• European Rally Championship. The series finished at the Antibes Rally in France. Provisional champion is Simon Jean-Joseph, but this depends upon the outcome of an appeal by Renato Travaglia against exclusion from the penultimate round.
• Middle East Rally Championship. After many worries, the penultimate round is now due to proceed on 9-11 November. Khalid Al Qassimi currently leads Nasser Al Attiyah by 11 points.
• Asia Pacific Rally Championship. The final round, the China Rally, takes place on 9-11 November, the weekend before Ireland. The series has already been won by Cody Crocker, subject under the rules to his taking the start in China. One stalwart APRC driver - New Zealander Brian Green - is coming to Ireland to discover a completely different type of rallying.
• Intercontinental Rally Challange. The manufacturers' section of the IRC series has been won for Peugeot by the Spanish team of 207 Super 2000 cars. With only China Rally to run, and this team not planning to contest the event, it seems that Peugeot Spain's driver Enrique Ojeda will become the new IRC champion by default, ahead of his team-mate Nicolas Vouilloz. Vouilloz won three qualifying rounds, Ojeda none.

NON-CHAMPIONSHIP ENTRIES

• The plethora of World Rally Cars is certain to thrill traditional rally enthusiasts, but there are some unexpected changes. Kris Meeke is to drive the Subaru used this year by Eugene Donnelly to win the Global Irish Tarmac series. Donnelly will instead drive a Skoda Fabia WRC. The Donnelly family, coming from Londonderry in Ulster, achieved a remarkable success in 2006: elder brother Charlie won the Irish National championship and younger brother Eugene won the Irish Tarmac series - both driving the same Toyota Corolla WRC!  This year, Eugene has been driving in the Reid Motorsport team and retained his Irish Tarmac title.  Charlie does not compete on this event, although he finished second on the earlier rally this year in Sligo.
• Rally Ireland is due to see the World Rally Championship debut of the MG ZR Super 2000, entered by Roy White. This will be only the second outing for this car and its first on asphalt. The debut appearance was at the Plains Rally, a one-day forest rally in Britain in October.
• Expect a lot of last-minute plans! On going to press, there is a lot of uncertainty about exactly whose colours are going to be painted on which of the local cars.
• Several top international drivers have entered Group N cars on this event, on a non-championship basis for experience, including Svedlund, Martin Prokop, Eyvind Brynildsen, Hans Weijs and Jasper van den Heuvel.
• The final major Irish rally prior to Rally Ireland took place on 28 October. This was the Fastnet Rally, based at Skibbereen in the south of the country. Two foreign drivers competed as a pre-event Rally Ireland test. The winner was 18-year-old Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen, in a Ford Focus, one minute ahead of Eugene Donnelly, who was giving his Fabia WRC a first event; Brynildsen had turbo problems.

CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS

• WRC - Drivers (after round 14 Japan): Gronholm 104, Loeb 100, Hirvonen 84, Sordo 53, P.Solberg 38, H.Solberg 34, Atkinson 29, Latvala 24, Duval + Stohl 12, etc.

  WRC - Manufacturers (after round 14 Japan): BP-Ford WRT 189, Citroen Total WRT 155, Subaru WRT 73, Stobart VK M-Sport Ford RT 71, OMV Kronos Citroen WRT 43, Munchi's Ford WRT 14.
• PWRC (after round 6 Japan) [rounds competed]:Arai [6] 39, Pozzo [4]22, Higgins [4] 19, etc.

EVENT HISTORY

Recent winners (* = non-WRC event)

• 2005* - Matthew Wilson/Michael Orr, Ford Focus WRC.
• 2006* - Eugene Donnelly/Paul Kiely, Toyota Corolla WRC.

ENTRY DETAILS

• 90 entries have been accepted, including 36 World Rally Cars and 16 PCWRC drivers (including 2 "Guest" entries); the only Super 2000 is a non-championship entry. One privately-entered BMW Diesel is on the entry list.