Stunning Entry & Live Coverage for Easter Stages

The Carryduff Forklift MSA Northern Ireland Stage Rally Championship returns to action this Saturday for round three, the Triton Showers Easter Stages Rally.

Starting from Lisburn’s Bow Street at 9.30am on Saturday morning, competitors will tackle three loops of four stages all based within County Down. The service area is located at Ballynahinch’s Millbrook Lodge Hotel, which also hosts the event headquarters, while the winners will be crowned in Ballynahinch town centre at approximately 6.30pm.

A stunning line-up of the country’s quickest rally competitors has been received for the event, which is also a round of the Irish Tarmac Championship. Darren Gass and Enda Sherry will lead a host of World Rally Cars over the start ramp that also includes reigning Carryduff Forklift N.I. champion Derek McGarrity, as well as former champions Kenny McKinstry, Stuart Biggerstaff and George Robinson.

In fact, more than 10 World Rally Car crews have entered the event, with the top seven seeds all driving a variety of Subaru Impreza WRCs. Meanwhile, another former champion, Robin Phillips, is set to make a comeback aboard a DGM Sport hired Evo 9.

The Production category and two-wheel-drive entries are equally well supported with a healthy helping of Subarus, Mitsubishis as well as the crowd-pleasing Mark 2 Escort crews. A full entry list and stage maps are available from the official event programme. A list of stockists available from www.easterstages.net.

Watch Live Online!

If the recent wintry weather conditions make you want to stay at home instead of spectating from the potentially snow-covered ditches, organisers are set to launch a world first for national rally coverage. From 9am until 9pm on Saturday, the event will be broadcast live via the internet on www.circuitofireland.tv!

Students from South Eastern Regional College’s (SERC’s) Northern Ireland Film School, working in conjunction with Tyndall Productions, are set to provide 12 hours of non-stop live coverage, which will be streamed around the world in real time.

A purpose-built industry standard studio has been set up within the Millbrook Lodge Hotel and during the event, camera crews will be ‘on location’ in the rally service area, at Lisburn’s ceremonial start and at Ballynahinch’s champagne spraying finish.

Competitors will be interviewed live by the likes of Plum Tyndall and Pamela Ballantine from all of these locations, providing a valuable insight into life behind the wheel of a rally car.

An additional six cameras will be located on one of the stages, providing almost one mile of live coverage. The selected section of stage has been carefully chosen by event organisers, and viewers are in for a real treat with the opportunity to see competitors tackle four massive jumps, a tight hairpin as well as a mixture of other challenges.

All of the footage will be beamed back to base instantaneously and projected across the world via a live internet stream, giving rally fans across the globe the opportunity to follow round three of the Carryduff Forklift series as it unfolds. So if you are stuck indoors, make sure you log on to www.circuitofireland.tv!

Triton Showers Easter Stages Top 30 Entries
(Full list: www.nirally.com)

1 Darren Gass/Enda Sherry (Subaru Impreza WRC S10)
2 Derek McGarrity/James McKee (Subaru Impreza WRC S14)
3 Declan Boyle/Brian Boyle (Subaru Impreza WRC S12B)
4 Garry Jennings/Neil Doherty (Subaru Impreza WRC S12B)
5 Kenny McKinstry/Kenny Hull (Subaru Impreza WRC S14)
6 Donagh Kelly/Kevin Flanagan (Subaru Impreza WRC S11)
7 Kevin Barrett/Sean Mullally (Subaru Impreza WRC)
8 Alan Ring/Adrian Deasy (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9)
9 Josh Moffett/John Rowan (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9)
10 Sam Moffett/James O’Reilly (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9)
11 Phillip Morrow/Jonny Hart (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9)
12 Peadar Hurson/Damian Connolly (Ford Escort WRC)
14 Jonny Leonard/Niall Burns (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6)
15 Camillus Bradley/Crawford Henderson (Ford Escort Mk2)
16 Fergus O’Meara/TBA (Ford Escort Mk2)
17 Adrian Hetherington/Gary Nolan (Ford Escort Mk2)
18 George Robinson/Tommy Speers (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9)
19 Wesley Patterson/Martin McGarrity (Ford Escort RS1800)
20 Stuart Biggerstaff/Anthony Nestor (Subaru Impreza WRC S9)
21 James Laverty/Francis Regan (Subaru Impreza)
22 Eugene Meegan/TBA (Mitsubushi Lancer Evo)
23 Stephen Wright/Susanne Wright (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9)
24 Trevor Ferguson/David McElroy (Subaru Impreza N12)
25 Robert Woodside/Dean Beckett (Subaru Impreza WRC)
26 Kieron Graffin/Paddy Robinson (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9)
27 Ray Brammer/Damien Fleming (Subaru Impreza WRC)
28 David Armstrong/Paul Mulholland (Ford Escort Mk2)
29 Willie Mavitty/TBA (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9)
30 Fintan McGrady/Mark Hanna (Ford Escort Mk2)