Just as in Formula One, the World Rally Championship goes down to the wire in the final round, the RAC Rally of Britain which starts on Sunday to Tuesday.
Tommi Makinen leads on 56 points from Carlos Sainz (Spain) on 47 and Colin McRae (Scotland) on 42. Makinen won the championship last year and the Mitsubishi driver has the ability to stay cool under pressure.
McRae is Makinen's challenger for the championship, as Sainz has used up all his points and cannot improve in the scoring system. But McRae must score outright victory and Makinen finish lower that sixth if the Scotsman is to repeat his 1995 World Championship success.
As well as McRae and Makinen, Ford Escort WRC drivers Sainz and Juha Kankkunen will be both going flat out for a third RAC win. Sainz won in 1990 and 1992 driving for Toyota, Kankkunen winning in 1991 in a Lancia and in 1993 in a Toyota. And the cat amongst the pigeons could well be Didier Auriol in the new and ever improving Toyota Corolla WRC (the initials WRC denote the latest World Rally Cars).
Irish interest will be on Dublin driver Richie Holfeld, and English co-driver Ian Grindrod. They will rally a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 3, now rebuilt following their off-course mishap and roll in the recent Bulldog Rally in Spain. The Anglo-Irish pair finished third in Group N of the Mintex British Rally Championship, and Holfeld reckons that if the weather is mild they have a good chance of Group N honours.
Officially called the Network Q RAC Rally, it is actually Britain's biggest sporting event, watched by over two million spectators, with around 11,000 volunteer officials. This year's 1,848 kilometre event starts and finishes at the Cheltenham racecourse. Stages will be held at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit and in central and southern Wales.
The prestigious Irish Experts Trial, promoted this year by the Dublin and District Motor Cycle Club, takes place tomorrow in the Wicklow Mountains, above Lacken village, near Blessington. First held in 1955, the Irish Experts Trial (for the Donat Gill Memorial Trophy) has been won by virtually all the big names in trials riding, among them Sammy Miller and Peter Gaunt (four wins each), Benny Crawford and his sons Harold and Robert have between them won the Irish Experts Trial 11 times.
Brian McLoughlin, Stuart Martin, Gordon Clarke, Donal Harrington, Michael Burton and Warren Hendy are the grade winners in the 1997 Southern Centre Trials Championship.
Grade winners in the Irish Motocross Championship: B Steele, C Bell and A Holland. Southern Centre Short Circuit Racing Cham- pionship class winners: D Darby (125/200 cc), H Hincks (210/750 cc) and J Walsh (Supersport 400). Road Racing Championship winners: Mark Curtin (125/200 cc), Brian Coogan (201/ 750 cc) and Paul Thompson (Classics); South- ern Centre Sidecar Racing Championship - A Kinsella (drivers), S Galligan Jnr (passengers).
The Irish motor racing season is well and truly over, many of the awards and cash prizes have already been distributed - but some two months after the final round of the Ford of Ireland/Formula Ford Zetec Championship, the final placings have not been announced.
It's bad enough that the first year of the Zetec Championships should end in controversy, but the inordinately tedious delay in the posting of official results is ludicrous. It is believed that Noel Dunne has won the championship, but there may be an appeal or protest by Mark McKenna. The silence from the Formula Ford Association is deafening.
