Rallycross is on the up worldwide and the return of the burgeoning British Championship will create the biggest Supercar line-up seen at Mondello Park since the circuit's European Rallycross heyday in the 1980s. Seventeen four wheel drive Rallycross monsters will line-up to do battle in two separate championship rounds over two days.
Over the course of the weekend drivers and their fans will be treated to racing on two very different circuits. Day one will see the drivers tackle an anti-clockwise track lay-out which features a start line right under the main straight Grandstand and a very long fast run to turn one, Southside Motor Factors corner. Other features are the fast left hander onto the main straight, again in full view of the Grandstand, and a Joker Lap which runs from the exit of Southside corner to Irish Ferries on the tarmac race circuit.
Sunday's event will revert to the more familiar clockwise Rallycross Track which has provided so much fantastic action over the years. Spectators in the Grandstand will this time have the best seats in the house for the Turn 1 sort out as well as being able to see the run up to the 'Hole in the Hedge' and across to the loose surface at Rallycross 2.
The Supercar entry list is headed by Irish European Rallycross Championship front runners Ollie O'Donovan and Derek Tohill in a pair of Ford Fiestas. Joining them on their home turf will be a strong line-up of British Championship drivers, many of who have extensive European and World Rallycross experience, including an old Irish favourite, Tony Bardy, who will race at Mondello Park for the first time since 2005.
The two wheel drive Modified Division will push the Supercars hard to be the top entertainers over the weekend with twenty five drivers entered. Competition between the Irish and British Championship will be hot, and with many of the visitors having previous track experience, the locals will not have it all their own way. Lotus Exige driver Paige Bellerby has won all three races in the British Championship so far and will come to Kildare looking to continue that run. To do so she will have to get by the top three from the Irish Championship, Willie Coyne and Padraig Leeson with their Opel Corsas and Lloyd Spendlove with his Lotus.
A fantastic entry of more than 100 racers will compete at Mondello Park across a number of divisions, including the one make BMW Mini, Suzuki Swift, and Fiesta classes, alongside Production Cars, Super 1600, RX 150 Buggies, Rallycars and separate divisions for British and Irish Junior drivers.
Tickets for the two-day Festival of Rallycross can be purchased from the Mondello Park web site and are available at reduced on-line prices. Camping packages are also available and details of these can be found on the event page on the Mondello Park web site, along with information on all of the weekends entertainment, which includes music and a Barbecue on the Saturday evening.
