[Kevin O Driscoll]

Folks, if there was a new modified championship set up, taking in five Irish Tarmac Rallies, and using non Irish championship rounds such as West Cork, Wexford, ALMC etc...and catering for classes 9-15 (15 covers 6R4s, Cossies and other cars out of homologation), would there be much interest from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales? It would help boost the profile of those events and allow British and Irish drivers to compete on some of the best tarmac roads in Ireland. With the 6R4 to be banned in the UK after 2009 it would be an opportunity to see these cars back on Irish tar. Bearing in mind that the internationals such as Cork, Galway, Donegal and Killarney are allowing more and more homologated machinery at the expense of the modified driver, would it be the way to go? The events such as West Cork could still attract some top drivers is 4wd cars but the modified men can still race in the same rally as these top guys and not excluded from the overall results. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Eoin G]

Good idea .Modified drivers should be named in the overall results alright .Always good to see the underdog do well

 

[Gary Nolan]

First I heard about it was last night at a club meeting, would be the real job alright and it would surely get a good following. Could you imagine, Collins, Dalton, Gwyndaf, Gareth Lloyd, Keenan, Ferry, Moffett, James, Wall, Whitty, Coleman, Rodgers, Damian Gallagher, maybe O' Neill the list is endless! Maybe it would entice the likes off Barrett, Lawlor, Kelly, McCormack to make some appearances on the tar! Imagine all them in a line up! Now that would get all the real fans on the ditches! You'd get lads following a championship like that the length and breath of the country!

 

[peespeed]

Hbx, what would you say if there was a couple of HSR Chevettes, Lotus Sunbeams and the like driven by some fairly quick boys from across the water over here too along with a handful of 6R4's and a few more Darrians to keep Dalton honest :laugh:

 

[Kevin O Driscoll]

I don't think there'd be any maybe with Kieran O'Neill:laugh: Thats a challenge he'd love! Ashley Field gave John Dalton an excellent run for his money in West Cork this year it would be great to have him back, speaking of West Cork, maybe Denis Cronin will give the M3 an airing for a few events like this

[Edited on 13-10-2005 by anihel]

 

[woody]

If this chmapionship is set up it will affect me, but what will they call this championship cause im sure Dunlop would object to the word "national" appearing in the title

 

[Kevin O Driscoll]

The word national won't be used in the title because the only ones eligible for points will be class 9-15, and the events will be non dunlop and non tarmac rounds....the idea is to cater for modifieds by using rallies that don't have a huge amount of entries taken up by priority seeding

[Edited on 13-10-2005 by anihel]

 

[Gary Nolan]

It's something like that that will bet lads interested, you only want about five rounds, because alot of lads wouldn't have the budget for more and if your wanting to get overseas crews interested, they won't travel over ten times a yr! A championship like that coulds bring a few lads back out onto the stages more regularely, like O' Neill, Martin Daly, Cathal Rodgers, might get Shanahan back in an Escort! Oh the taughts of it makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck!

 

[Kevin O Driscoll]

Exciting thoughts alright, five rounds would be enough because extra points could be allocated to the two day rounds....

 

[gn3dr]

I think for a championship to work, the clubs involved would also have to prioritise modified entries over homolgated ones. (If they don't then these rallies would be no different to todays championship where basically the championship outcome for most classes is more dictated by entries rather than actual performance.)

It would be great for modified cars if a few events did this but I see a problem here. How many clubs are going to give priority to a modified car over a headline grabbing WRC car???

 

[Kevin O Driscoll]

That would be the idea that the clubs would prioritise these events. Realistically speaking how many WRCs and Group Ns would enter these non championship events, maybe 25 maximum, and how many would start? Probably 15-20 if they are lucky....thats still a lot of places for registered drivers.

 

[gn3dr]

You'd get a lot more than 25 WRC's & GpN's entering most rallies - championship or not.

 

[Pierce Doheny Jnr.]

Just tidying my desk here and found the Wexford entry list.................
There were seven class 8 cars entered in the event and nine class 4 cars....... And not all of the class eight cars started the event!!!!!

Wexford would be the perfect event for this type of championship in my opinion. If ya had West Cork aswell, Birr Stages,Banna Beach, GSMC, ALMC, and maybe one or two of the events in the National Championship that are on their opt out year. Pick maybe 5 or six of these events that are evenly spaced out as far as the calendar is concerned and ya would have a great championship for the clubman.

Or possibly pick six events and a crew can only start five and has to marshall on the other event.......Just a thought

 

[Kevin O Driscoll]

I think this years West Cork had about 8 WRCs and 12 Gp Ns that started, and most of the rest were made up of modifieds with the result that the pace was serious, John Dalton held fourth until the third last stage when the rain finally came, such was the speed of the 2WD brigade. Five or six rounds would be plenty, but they would have to be multi stage not mini or single stage because class 14 and 15 don't qualify in all of these events...