21 January 2017
By Bryan T. Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
The 39th running of the Quality Hotel Clonakilty West Cork Rally will take place on 18th & 19th March 2017 with Greg McCarthy as Clerk of the Course for a third year.
The club are delighted to have the Quality Hotel back as title sponsors and is once again also the Rally Headquarters, and additional support from Jim Davis & Co, Cork County Council, and Failte Ireland.
The Rally is a round of the following championships;
- Round 2 of the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Rally Championship
- Round 1 of the FIA Celtic Trophy
- Round 1 of the PlasticBags.ie Southern 4 Rally Championship
- Round 2 of the Cork Motor Club Championship
It will be 40 years since the rally first ran in 1977, and to celebrate this Greg has decided to introduce a new feature for this year’s event, the final stage of the first day will run in darkness. The format will see four stages tackled twice on the first day as usual, but a ninth stage will run in the dark to round off the first day providing drivers with an exciting challenge over some classic roads.
The second day will have six more stages, three stages to be run twice with a service after the first three stages. The basic entry fee is being held at €725, but organisers say that “unfortunately due to the unavoidable increase in insurance, a levy of €375 has to be added to the fee for a two day event”. Regulations will be available to download shortly from both www.westcorkrally.com and www.corkmotorclub.com.
