It’s that time of the year when the roar of rally car returns to Roscommon. The 2008 Abbey Hotel Roscommon Moto Stages Rally takes place on Sunday the 6 th of April. This year’s prestigious event is lucky enough to form part of the japcars.ie Midlands East Rally Championship, the Irish Peugeot 205 Championship and the inaugural Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally Championship. Plans are well underway for the flagship Midland Motor Club event with Clerk of the Course, Eoin Longworth, appointing his committee as far back as September last year. Once again the rally’s headquarters will return to the Abbey Hotel in Roscommon. The hotel has provided a fantastic venue for the event for the past two years and Midland Motor Club are delighted to be associated with the Abbey Hotel for what they hope will be yet another Moto Stages Rally. Horsepower of a different kind will be appearing in Roscommon Racecourse on Sunday the 6 th of April as this will be the centralised servicing area for the event with the rally cars visiting the racecourse three times over the course of the day. This year’s event will run under the format of 4 stages completed twice, giving a total of 8 stages equating to 120 stage kilometres. The stages are located in the Oran, Creggs, Mount Mary and Toberdan areas circling the town of Roscommon. Midland Motor Club are indebted to the residents along the rally route as without the co-operation of these people the rally would not run. Another vital resource on the day are marshals. This year’s Chief Marshal is Roscommon’s Kevin Lunt who is taking a break from competing with the Abbey Hotel’s Adrian Grealy. Kevin is appealing for Marshals and anyone who is interested in being a marshal over the weekend can contact him on 087 2519266. Entries are flooding in and a massive amount have been received since entries opened on the 25th of February and no doubt last year’s winner Kevin Lynch and David Moynihan will be eager to retain the Michael Farrell Memorial Trophy. On Sunday the 6 th of April 171 cars will be flagged off from Parc Feirme which once again is in the ideal grounds of the CBS. This year’s event will contain main field, historic and junior categories, attracting entries from the length and breadth of Ireland. This year’s event also boasts one the largest amount of Midland Motor Club entries ever. The official launch of the 2008 Moto Stages Rally takes place on Tuesday the 25 th of March in the Abbey Hotel at 2 pm, where further details on the event will be announced. All are welcome.
This Week’s Digital Edition
