News and Gossip

2010 Motorsport calender coming very soon

The Carlow car club sprint in Tynagh is is on this ~Sunday regs are on the Carlow car club web site

Three out of three from Carnew Carlow car club recently held there sprint over in Tynagh in Galway. With motorsport coming back to life after its winter break. With the economic down turn entries were down but not in quality with Rory Stephen taking the win. Carnew Man Con Byrne in his new leason single seater which is powered by a 900cc engine from a motor bike which Con just got three weeks before the event and after the success of last year with a class win most day he went out and Con had high hopes that the new car would deliver some more good results but also new this weekend would be a learning curve and on the opening run Con could not get the car to handle but between each run he worked hard to get the car right by the after noon the times were improving and the handling also and just missed out on a podium position to come home 4th over all and the class win . Next up was Laura Eustace in her formula V Laura also competed on the hillclimb championship last year and was a regular class winner last year , after run one Laura was complaining that she was a bit rusty not having been out since last year as the day wore on the times started to improve and Laura picked up the class win and the ladies award , Next up also from Carnew and new to the sport was Bob Roe in his new Fiat Uno. Bob only collected the car the night before the event and did not get much time to look over the car and went out to learn the car run by run Bob was getting use to the car and getting faster and faster and ended the day by winning the class and said I really enjoyed the day and is going to try his hand at some of the rounds of the hillclimb championship . So all in all a great days motorsport had by all

4 WEEKS TO GO With the rally now officially launched and only 4 weeks to go the final push is now on for to make this years May 9th 2010 Carlow Stages Rally and MkII Challenge as successful as previous years. Entries have been coming in at a steady pace to date, the headquarters for the rally this year will again be the Lord Bagenal Hotel Leighlinbridge, with Boland’s Cars Carlow coming onboard as sponsors of the MkII Challenge. The rally will take place over a route of approximately 160 stage kilometres and 130 road kilometres, it will be a 3x3 format with the stages located around the Kilkenny area with the service area in Gowran Park car park. This year with the economic climate as it is the club have came up with many incentives to encourage entries and to help out competitors and give them a value for money rally, some of these are the reduced entry fee which was set at €540 but has now been reduced to €500, there will also be a draw for a free entry to the rally, any competitor who has his or her entry in on or before the closing date 30th April will be entered into this draw. The draw will take place at drivers briefing on the Saturday night in the rally headquarters and the lucky winner will have their entry fee returned in full and a free days rallying to look forward to the next day. The complete rally will be televised this year by Michael Bracken and On the Limit Sports and each competitor will receive a free DVD of the rally after the event compliments of On the Limit Sports. As an incentive for our northern and overseas crews On the Limit Sports have agreed to sponsor the HANS for all MkII Challenge entrants Carlow Car Club will sponsor the HANS for any NI and UK competitors in the main field. For this years event the club have teamed up with The Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland and are donating all proceeds from the Rally Programme to this worthy cause, there will be fundraising events leading up to the rally and on the day of the rally. Our club man in charge of this fundraiser is Brian Doyle, if you like further information Brian can be contacted on 087 2351163. Carlow Stages is also a counting rounds of Honda Cup Ireland, Southeast Stages Championship and Irish Evolution Challenge. Entries are available through the EVO online system, on the club website www.carlowcarlub.ie or www.mkiichallenge.com or by post to the Entries Secretary, Ms Charlotte Egan, Carlow Car Club, Gilbertstown, Rathoe, Co Carlow, if you need any further information or have any queries on the rally you can phone 059 8632761 or Fax 059 8632269.