This Sunday, July 31st, Mondello Park will introduce a new initiative, with the assistance of the Carlow Car Club, who will run the first ever Motorsport Ireland sanctioned, all tarmac Rallysprint, to be held at the County Kildare venue.
Having regularly organised mixed surface Winter Rallysprints at Mondello Park, the Carlow Car Club will now bring their experience to bear on the first ever Mondello Park Rallysprint to only use the venue's tarmac race circuit.
Sunday's event will be open to rally and rallycross cars along with saloons from any race, hillclimb or sprint series. Competitors will have a number of runs on the 'Stage' with the first being a familiarisation and the rest timed. The stage will consist of two laps of the full International circuit and the event will be scored in the same way as a rally, with each competitor’s total time for all runs deciding the results.
There will be eleven separate classes competing at the event. Six of the classes will cater for rallycars, from the most powerful four wheel drive WRC's to more humble production cars. There will be four divisons for Rallycross Cars, including stockhatch, and a class for all race cars. Drivers will be allowed to carry passengers but these must possess a competition licence. For those who don’t have a licence a one-day navigator’s licence will be available.
The first ever Mondello Park Tarmac Rallysprint is already attracting a strong and diverse entry and this new event looks like making a very successful debut. If this style of Rallysprint event proves sufficiently popular with competitors, further Tarmac Rallysprints will be introduced in 2012.