Finnish flick for Nagle
THERE is still a large degree of uncertainty surrounding international motorsport events but Killarney co-driver Paul Nagle is taking it all one day at a time.
No sooner was it announced that he and his driver Craig Breen were to be part of a threecar Hyundai Motorsport team for Rally Finland, in August, the event got cancelled. Almost at the same time, the European Rally Championship got the green light and the opening round of that series will run (at the time of writing) in Italy in July.
“It is very disappointing, but we have to look after our own welfare and the welfare of the people of Finland, we can do nothing only look forward to Rally Finland in 2021,” he said.
The organising team behind the Rally di Roma Capitale, which is set to run from July 24 to 26 is taking unprecedented steps to ensure that the rally will run.
These include a dedicated App to be used for contact tracing purposes and requesting spectators to register their chosen viewing spots well ahead of the event.
The Italian rally is the opening round of the European Rally Championship and Breen and Nagle are contracted to contest this series in a MRF Tyres supported Hyundai i30 R5. The Irish pair have also placed an entry for the Elba Rally, an Italian Rally Championship event, which is scheduled to run one week after Rally di Roma Capitale.
The cancellation of Rally Finland means their 2020 WRC aspirations remain up in the air.
The possibility remained until Tuesday morning that they might have got the Hyundai call for Rally GB in late October but, unfortunately the classic event was the latest to be cancelled in the wake of the cornavirus pandemic.
Motorcyle racing
KILLARNEY motorcycle racer Kevin Coyne has fast-tracked his plans to race in Britain as it becomes increasingly unlikely that the sport will resume in Ireland this year.
Coyne, 18, initially planned on contesting the full Irish series before heading to England for the later rounds of the British SuperBike championship, but Mondello Park has announced that the return of car racing will take priority over motorcycle racing.
As a result, Coyne has decided to go to Britain as soon as racing gets the green light over there. The BSB is due to release a revised calendar this week and once the dates are confirmed Coyne will race in the first Junior Supersport race that becomes available.