Rally Ireland was added to the FIA

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA. There are separate championships ...

(WRC) calendar in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

. It was not part of the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

schedule, but returned as the First round of the championship in

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

. The north–south event is the largest sporting occasion on the island of Ireland with over 250,000 spectators and a TV audience in 180 countries. As part of the WRC rotation Rally Ireland is not part of the

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

season but was expected to figure in 2011. However, on 19 February 2010 North One Sport the WRC promoter, announced that Rally Ireland would not be awarded a place on the 2011 calendar.Ireland to miss out on 2011 WRC slot
Autosport Website 2010-02-19 Retrieved 19 February 2010

Stage locations

The 2007 event took place between 15 and 18 November 2007, starting with the ''Super Special Stage'' in the grounds of the Stormont Parliament Buildings on the outskirts of

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingd ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to th ...

. The remainder of the event was based in the north-west of Ireland in the counties of

Sligo Sligo ( ; ga, Sligeach , meaning 'abounding in shells') is a coastal seaport and the county town of County Sligo, Ireland, within the western province of Connacht. With a population of approximately 20,000 in 2016, it is the List of urban areas ...

Fermanagh Historically, Fermanagh ( ga, Fir Manach), as opposed to the modern County Fermanagh, was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, associated geographically with present-day County Fermanagh. ''Fir Manach'' originally referred to a distinct kin group of ...

, Donegal, Leitrim, Tyrone,

Roscommon Roscommon (; ) is the county town and the largest town in County Roscommon in Ireland. It is roughly in the centre of Ireland, near the meeting of the N60, N61 and N63 roads. The name Roscommon is derived from Coman mac Faelchon who bui ...

and

Cavan Cavan ( ; ) is the county town of County Cavan in Ireland. The town lies in Ulster, near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The town is bypassed by the main N3 road that links Dublin (to the south) with Enniskillen, Ba ...

Organisation structure

''Rally Ireland'' is organised by

Motorsport Ireland Motorsport Ireland is the National Governing Body for four-wheeled motorsports in the Republic of Ireland. ''Motorsport Ireland'' is affiliated to the supreme authority for world motorsport, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FI ...

. The event itself joined the WRC in 2007 when it was won by reigning World Champions Sébastien Loeb and

Daniel Elena Daniel Elena (born 26 October 1972) also known as "Danos" is a Monégasque rally co-driver working most notably with Sébastien Loeb. Between them the pair have won the World Rally Championship (WRC) nine times with Citroën, later competing w ...

in a Citroën C4. The rally is managed by Event Director John Naylor and the Clerk of the Course is Gordon Noble. A steering committee which is charged with developing the event is in place. This committee is chaired by Austin Frazer and includes representative of

(MI) and The Association of Northern Ireland Car Clubs (ANICC). Rally Ireland received strong government support from both sides of the border. It continues a long tradition of cross-border rallying in Ireland, which dates back to the early years of the Circuit of Ireland Rally in the 1930s.

Surface

The Rally was held on

asphalt concrete Asphalt concrete (commonly called asphalt, blacktop, or pavement in North America, and tarmac, bitumen macadam, or rolled asphalt in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland) is a composite material commonly used to surface roads, parkin ...

, which was very wavy and slippery due to the humidly Irish weather, what makes this character being similar to the '' Rally Monte Carlo'' (with exception of snow). This character had even marked a high retirement-rate in this rally.

Past winners

References

External links

Official websiteWRC.com – Official site of the World Rally ChampionshipSS2, 5 & 10
{{Rally Ireland Rally competitions in Ireland Recurring sporting events established in 2005 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2009

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...