Irish six appeal

As most Rallycross championship draw to a close, the final schedule for the Motorsport Ireland Rallycross Championship has been released ahead of this weekend’s opening event. Running through the winter, the championship has been trimmed to six events, but also offers a test day before round one for those who want extra track time.

“We looked at the championship very closely but decided to have just six events and not go to the UK this year in order to try and control costs for competitors,” said championship official Michael FitzSimons. All the events will be run at Mondello Park and there will be test day on October 15, “We will have the new Joker Lap section setup to try in the test day and competitors will be able to look at it during the first championship round on the 16th. If everything works well in the test and drivers like the idea, we hope to have it approved and running for round two,” said FitzSimons. The test day will run from 1100 to 1500 and cost €100.

As part of a five year plan to try and regain a European championship event (see Ireland’s plan) the new Joker Lap section is to be introduced at Mondello this winter. Created using a loop of the asphalt racetrack close to the ‘Rallycross Two’ gravel section, the plan is to trial the Joker Lap in this weekend’s test day and, if it is popular with drivers and also passes safety checks, introduce it for round two of the championship at the end of the month.

The 2011-12 Irish Championship will be the first to include the RX150 formula which is newly approved by Motorsport Ireland. As in the UK, there is also a move in Ireland to establish a Retro class and will run a trial event in one of the championship rounds if there is enough interest. Regs for the championship and events are available on mondello.ie and foreign competitors interested in doing the championship should also contact Mondello Park for information on ferry deals.

Former European Rallycross champion Derek Tohill will drive his TouringCar Fiesta in the opening round of the Irish Rallycross Championship on Sunday. Third in the championship this year, Tohill is doing the Mondello event to give fans and sponsors a chance to see the car on home ground. He plans to drive the Fiesta in the Rallycross Grand Prix at Croft next month but is likely to drive an RX150 ‘buggy’ in the remaining Irish championship events.

• Motorsport Ireland Rallycross Championship
• October 16
• October 31 (BH Monday)
• November 20
• February 5
• February 19
• March 4