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Rallycross Championship Battles Go Down To The Wire At Mondello |
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Wednesday, 05 March 2008 |
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It will be a case of three
into one must go this weekend at Mondello Park, for the final round of the
2007/2008 Motorsport Ireland Rallycross Championship, organised by the Carlow
Car Club. The Supercar, Modified and Stockhatch titles are still up for grabs
and in each division three drivers are still in the fight, which should
guarantee a day of superb action.
The overall championship
can still be won by Dermot Carnegie (Ford Fiesta), Paul Grogan (Subaru Impreza)
or George Tracey (Metro 6R4). Carnegie will undoubtedly start the event as
favourite to re-claim his crown due to the thirteen point lead he holds over
Grogan. The Dublin Rallycross veteran has a further point in hand over
traditional title rival Tracey which means he does not need to push for the
victory to seal another crown.
Carnegies Fiesta has taken him to two wins this season and
with neither of his rivals having won a round he is in an extremely strong
position. While lacking the speed and experience to challenge for race wins, the
impressive Grogan has picked up speed all season in his Subaru but would
probably need a non-finish by Carnegie and Tracey to be in with a shout of an
unlikely first title. Former champ Tracey knows what it takes to get to the top
step of the podium but has had a poor season by his standards and will probably
need to take his first win of the campaign with Carnegie hitting trouble if he
is to have any hope of overhauling him.
In the modified division it’s
all about the Coyne brothers who fill the top three positions separated by just
four points. Willie Coyne with his Nova currently sits on the top of the pile
with Brendan’s Fiesta three points adrift and the fastest of the trio, Michael
with his Nova, a further point behind. Any of these three could come out on top
on Sunday with the points permutations so complicated that all three will have
to really go for it in order to come out tops in this long running family
rivalry. In the unlikely event of all three hitting problems Mark Carroll is
waiting in the wings to take over. He still has an outside chance of becoming
champ as do Keith Curran and Chris Grimes.
The budget Stockhatch class
again has three main contenders but Michael Duke will start as favourite due to
his ten point advantage over English raider Julian Godfrey. Keith Campbell is
the only other driver with a mathematical chance of lifting the crown. In the
Rallycar Division class 9A is the only one still to be decided with Des Ryan
having tied up Class 9 and Andrew Morris 9B. Pat Keogh, Pat Murphy and Jack
Deegan are the trio battling it out here.
Qualifying heats to decide the
grid positions for Sunday afternoon's finals get underway at 10:00 on Sunday
morning with the excitement building towards the finals scheduled to get
underway at 15:30.
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TIMETABLE
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09:15
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Practice
Commences
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09:45
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Practice Finishes
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10:00
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Heats Run 1
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11:30
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Heats Run 2
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13:00
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Lunch
Break
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13:45
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Heats Run
3 |
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15:30
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Finals
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