West Cork Rally 2011

For the 33rd time Clonakilty will be alive to the sound of rally cars of all shapes and sizes on St.Patricks weekend, the 19th & 20th March. As always crews are expected from all corners of the island as well as some overseas visitors. Quality Hotels are on board as Title Sponsor for the ninth successive year. Cork Motor Club is also delighted to announce that the Fastnet Line Ferry Service (Cork – Swansea) is coming on board as Associate Sponsor. They are offering a 20% discount on sailings to the rally provided they are booked before 28th of February and will be sailing back to Wales on the Monday night after the rally. The Quality Hotel Clonakilty will again be the headquarters for the rally.

Darren McCarthy is clerk for the third year and has laid down a challenging route of 17 stages, one of which is a town stage, and will bring the event closer to the spectators. While various spectator stages over the years have either started or finished in close proximity to the town, this is the first time since 1984 that the cars will appear in action on some of the streets.

Cork Motor Club is pleased to announce that the entry fee is held at the 2009 & 2010 price of €630 which is excellent value for 17 stages and 240km of competition mileage. Road mileage is again less than the stage mileage at 175 km while service will be centralised as usual near Clonakilty. Regulations will be available to download shortly from www.corkmotorclub.com and www.westcorkrally.com. If you wish for the regulations to be emailed or posted to you when they become available, you can register your interest by means of a form on both of the above websites.

As usual the rally is the first round of the Southern 4 Rally Championship, while this year sees the event being the first round of the Citroen Cup. The Bones O’Connor Modified Challenge is back for a fifth year in 2011 with John Dalton still the only driver to have won the trophy since its inception. This challenge incorporates cars from classes 9-15 (details on classes to be found on www.motorsportireland.com).

There will also be a Historic Rally which will begin on Stage 5 on day one; the cost of entry here is €480 while the Junior Rally will cover the last four stages of the event at a cost of €330. After the success of the scheme over the past three years, junior competitors are also reminded that if they go marshalling on the Saturday stages then they will get a refund of €100 on their entry fee. Both crew members have to take part to avail of this.