The Irish Rallycross Championship continues its 2009/10 campaign this weekend at Mondello Park with round three of the series run by the Carlow Car Club. Sunday’s races are set to continue the recent revival in Irish Rallycross with championship leaders Tommy Graham and Michael Coyne at the head of an entry list which includes eight Supercars and fifteen of the two wheel drive modified division machines.
Reigning champion Michael Coyne will be looking to continue to take the battle to the four wheel drive Supercars in the Superfinal, particularly if the track stays dry, but is up against stronger opposition than last season among the two wheel drive brigade. Round two saw him give best to the brand new Lotus of Ian O’Connell, with the former Mini driver emerging as the new star of the modified division now that he is equipped with more modern machinery. Coyne still leads the series thanks to a strong showing at Pembrey but will need another strong result if he is to retain his championship lead.
In the Supercar class local favourite’s Tommy Graham and Eddie Kinirons with their Ford’s will start as favourites ahead of a field of Japanese machinery. Championship stalwarts the Morris brothers will have two Impreza’s on the grid along with Paul Pascoe who joins them in the Wexford based BMRT set up. The remainder of the grid will be made up of Kildare men, with Mitsubishi Evo pilots Tom Kirwan and David Dempsey joined by another Supercar newcomer Barry Johnson with his Impreza.
The Stockhatch championship has been wide open over the first two races of the season with former champions Derek Tohill and Michael Duke finding the going tough. Tohill won at round one in Pembrey back in September but had to pull off the grid at the start of the round two ‘A Final’. Duke failed to score at round one and could only manage fifth at round two as Gordon Lynch took the victory to add to his third place finish at Pembrey. As usual the Stockhatch drivers will provide the biggest class of the day with over thirty cars expected. The remaining classes, Junior Rallycross and Rallycars, continue to perform well with more than a dozen entries apiece bringing the total number of entries above eighty drivers yet again.
Sunday’s event gets underway with the first round of heats at 10:15. The event takes a break for half an hour following the second runoff heats and then finishes off the day with the third runs commencing at 13:45 and the finals at 15:30.
TIMETABLE
09:15 Practice Commences
10:00 Practice Finishes
10:15 Heats Run 1
11:45 Heats Run 2
13:15 Lunch Break
13:45 Heats Run 3
15:30 Finals
17:00 Prizegiving