This years Tour Ireland looks set to be very exciting. The three-day event will be based in Llandudno, North Wales where competitors will go over to Ireland for 24 hours in the middle for some sensational closed-road stages, a stage and a race at Mondello Park and generally enjoy the craic of competing in Ireland. It will be run to the usual format of Regularity and Competition categories.
Competitors will congregate at Llandudno late on Tuesday 12 May to sign on and get documentation and scrutineering out of the way ready for an early start on Wednesday, 13 May.
The formal start will be on the Llandudno Promenade before going straight into the fabulous Great Orme Marine Drive as the first stage to set the tone and blow the cobwebs away.
After the Great Orme will be an easy run along the A55 and A5 to Holyhead for the high-speed ferry to Dun Laoghaire, just south of Dublin. With brunch along the route before heading off into nearby Wicklow Hills for five terrific tarmac stages lined up on closed public roads.
This year the HQ hotel is in Dun Laoghaire, overlooking Dublin Bay, for Happy Hour, dinner and socialising in the best Irish style. Trial Drivers Club in Ireland are putting the Irish stages and road route together.
Thursday morning will be spent at Mondello Park circuit where the action continues both on circuit and in as a stage in the grounds. Then it is back to the dock in Dun Laoghaire for the Irish loop prize-giving before boarding the ferry back to Holyhead. Lunch is on the ferry en route to a race late on Thursday afternoon and Llandudno is the HQ hotel for Thursdays dinner.
The final day will consist of a lap of the glorious Snowdonia countryside, taking in several stages, the handling stage at Glan y Gors track, the high speed of Llanbedr airfield and the quirkiness of Nant Gwrtheyrn. The Finish and prize giving is back in Llandudno on Friday evening, 15 May.
During a recent route recce for the 13-15 May event, in-car footage was filmed of the stages in the Sally Gap area of the Wicklow Mountains.
An edit of the film can be viewed here
The stages run on two-lane roads that are free from pot holes and feature flowing corners with excellent forward visibility. There are few, if any, tricky brows and the stages have been chosen to appeal to crews that have limited experience of competing on such roads.
Automotive Writer Paul Lawrence got to test drive some of the route he commented “The Irish stages should be very rewarding to drive competitively and a great driving experience. They are not inherently tricky, as most of the time the driver has good forward visibility….The road is generally two-lane, which allows some margin for error, and they are free from pot holes despite being on top of a mountain.”
