With eight wins out of eight events Eamonn Byrne is well on his way to a seventh RIAC Hewison Trophy Championship. The Delgany driver first won the autotest championship in 1990. Sam Bowden was successful in 1991/93, having won three years in a row in 1987/89. Byrne then had five successive wins, 1993/97, but was beaten in the 1997/98 series by Peter Grimes.

Byrne leads on 200 points, well clear of JJ Farrell on 189 and Dermot Carnegie on 179. The top 10 is completed by Sam Johnston 153, Chris Grimes 149, Paddy Power 140, Liam Cashman 133, Paul Phelan 123, Eddie Peterson 108 and Frank Lenehan 99.

Sunday's Hewison Trial is at Whitestown near Baltinglass. The mud pluggers compete in tomorrow's Leinster Trial at Valentines, Newcastle, Co Wicklow. The awards presentations for the RIAC/Red Mills National Rally Championship will be presented tomorrow night at a function in the Woodlands Hotel, Adare, Co Limerick. John Gilleece and co-driver Mike Gibson have won the championship for the second successive year, having been runners-up in 1996. They campaigned a Ford Escort RS Cosworth to good effect, holding off a strong challenge by Monaghan's Niall Maguire in a Subaru Legacy to retain the Cecil Vard Memorial Trophy.

Three new drivers have been signed to join Colin McRae in the Ford rally challenge starting in 1999 with the new Ford Focus. Thomas Radstrom (Sweden). Jean-Joseph Simon (France) and Peter Solberg (Norway) will play a strong support role to McRae in the World Rally Championship which kicks off with the Monte Carlo Rally on January 17th-20th.

The experienced Belfast-born Fred Gallagher, who partnered Ari Vatanen in a works Ford Escort WRC in two rounds of this year's championship, will co-drive for both Radstrom and Simon.

The Ford Focus WRC (World Rally Car) bristles with technical novelty, such as the six-speed sequential gearbox which is mounted longitudinally behind the transverse-mounted two-litre Zetic E Turbocharged engine and the all new XTrac 240 (four-wheel-drive) transmission.