New Prize Drive Announced for Junior 1000

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The Valvoline Motorsport Ireland National Forest Rally Championship Committee are pleased to release early details of an exciting new prize drive being offered to the winner of the inaugural Junior 1000 Championship in 2017. This special prize being donated will be a drive in a R2 spec car on a round of the Irish Forest Rally Championship and will also include a short test ahead of the event to familiarise themselves with the car.

This is just the latest incentive being offered to the championship committee as support for the new Junior 1000 Series continues to grow. The final details are still being worked out but we can confirm that extra training and technical support will also be on offer. Every crew that registers for the Junior 1000 Championship will receive a voucher for one set of pace notes and a DVD from each supplier, kindly sponsored by On The Pacenote and Patterson Pacenotes. We want to thank Killian Duffy And Brian Patterson for their generosity.

A further incentive for the top 3 finishers in J1000 will be Entry Vouchers worth €200 euro to first place, €125 euro to 2nd place and €75 euro to third place. Now, as if that weren’t enough reasons to take part in the new Junior 1000 Championship, our associate sponsors Ears Motorsport have generously offered a set of tyres for the series leader after round 2 and another set of tyres has also been donated for the prize drive.

Special thanks must go to M. O’Brien Plant Hire for coming onboard as the class sponsors of the Junior 1000. For more information on them please visit their website @ www.mobrienplanthire.co.uk. With any luck we may also get to see Mick and Dan O’Brien out on some of the rounds this year in their beautiful Ford World Rally Cars and perhaps Conor in his Junior 1000 car.

As for the main championship, we can already see from the current list of received entries that there are some exciting battles ahead for the overall win. Two of last years front runners have returned for another campaign, with Ger Lucey in his Mitsubishi Evo 8 and Adrian Hetherington bringing back the Toyota Corolla WRC. Adrian is surely one to watch this year after spending last year getting to know the car and now with that experience under his belt, the times are surely going to be very competitive in 2017. Ger Lucey had led the championship right up to the final round in Antrim in 2016 only to lose out to Desi Henry on that final round. Another 2 interesting entries to mention are the 2 Subaru Impreza S14 WRCs of Niall McCullagh & Shaun Sinclair. Both crews and cars are very capable of the win in Carrick on Suir.

Among the other entries already received we have lots of Subarus and Mitsubishis, Sunbeams and Mk2 Escorts, Hondas and a BMW, not one but two Ford Escort Cosworths and even a Toyota Starlet with last years Two Wheel Drive Champion Shane McGirr coming back for some more sideways fun and big jumps! David Crossen and John Gordon will be two men who hope to give Shane a good battle in the 2 Wheel Drive series with their Mk2 Escorts and thanks must go to John Gordon for coming onboard as an associate sponsor in 2017. We will also get to see the debut of Marty McCormacks new Skoda Fabia R5 as they prepare for their British Rally Championship campaign. With David Moynihan on the notes, Marty’s new TigerRisk backed R5 specification Skoda has to be one of the favourites to take the event win after winning overall at the Tour of the Sperrins Rally last year and mixing it with the top British Championship contenders in his older S2000 Fabia.

With less than 2 weeks to go, the first round of the championship is almost upon us – The Willie Loughman Memorial Carrick on Suir Forest Rally, based in the Piltown GAA Complex, Piltown, County Kilkenny and takes place on Sunday 12th February, with scrutiny on Saturday 11th February.

A press launch for the main championship, along with the Junior 1000 Series, has also been organised to take place on Saturday 11th February at the Piltown GAA Complex and everyone is invited to come along to see these new cars on display.

If you haven’t got your entry in to the Carrick on Suir Forest Rally yet, then its time to get a move on.
Get your entries in today!

Once again we would like to give special thanks to all our sponsors – Valvoline, Andrew Fanning Motor Factors, M. O’Brien Plant Hire, Suirway Group Forklifts & Farm Machinery, Jelf Motorsport Insurance, Exact Signs & Graphics, Pottinger Machinery, Ears Motorsport / Kumho Tyres, Colton Pump & Heating Services, Coillte, Concept Fire Services Ltd, Gordon Automotive Services, Lorcan & Catherine Barron @ Barron Pix & SVS Incar Cameras.

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