Two Irish rounds of the British Rallycross Championship have been rescheduled to April 15th at Nutts Corner in Antrim and April 16th at Mondello Park. This leaves tomorrow's Devereaux Cup Sporting Trial as the only car fixture this weekend. The penultimate "mud plug" event of the 1999/2000 season will be run by the MEC at Poulaphouca House Hotel grounds in Wicklow, with the final weekend double event in Kilkenny on April 15th/16th, which is also the weekend of the opening rounds of the Dunlop Hillclimb Championship traditionally run in the Kilkenny village of Inistioge.
The Spanish costal resort of Lloret de Mar, north of Barcelona, is the base for the Catalunya Rally, round five of the FIA World Rally Championship.
Britain's Richard Burns, driving a Subaru Impreza, leads the drivers' championship with a score of 22 points, ahead of Finnish drivers Tommi Makinen (Mitsubishi) and Marcus Gronholm (Peugeot 206) on 16 points.
James Travers (Kilkenny) leads the Ford Ka Rally Championship on 30 points after Sunday's opening round in Galway. Denise Ryan of Athy leads the women's class, 9th overall. Next round is the Circuit of Kerry on Sunday week, April 9th. The other rounds are: Carlow - May 7th; Carrick-onSuir - June 25th; Sligo - July 9th; Tipperary - August 13th; Rally of Ireland (Dublin) - August 27th; Cork 20 - October 6/7th.
Donegal crew Paul Harris and Eugene O'Donnell in a Subaru Impreza finished second on the two opening rounds of the Dunlop National Rally Championship, won by Andrew Nesbitt and Austin McHale, respectively.
After the opening Mondello meeting of March 19th, the next motor racing fixture is at Kirkistown in Co Down on Saturday week, but there is quite a gap to April 30th/May 1st for the next rounds of three Dunlop racing championships. In the Dunlop RT2000 series the Donegan brothers of Drogheda are split by John Whelan (Naas) in the order: Brendan Donegan 15 points, Whelan 12, David Donegan 10.
Declan Quigley, motorsport journalist and RTE's man in the Formula One pit lane, leads the Dunlop B-Championship having scored his first win recently.
Some 170 motorcycles including such historic makes as Norton, AJS, Matchless, Vincent, Royal Enfield, Triumph, Greeves, MV Agusta, MotoGuzzi, Ducati, Benelli and Laverda will be on display in the weekend's Millennium Motorcycle Show in the National Basketball Arena, Tallaght. The oldest machine on view will be a British Excelsior dating from 1900. All the latest superbikes will also be there, making a sharp contrast between the old and the new, plus the new BMW C1 scooter complete with roof . Opening times are: Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Bill Sparling, a leading Irish road racer of the 'fifties and 'sixties died last week. He twice won the Hutchinson Trophy at the Leinster 200 races in Dunboyne, Meath in 1958 and 1961 on an AJS. The Dublin rider also competed in Brazil in 1954 along with fellow Irishman Harry Lindsay.
