Circuit Of Ireland, Why Only in NI?

shedweller

As the title suggests, why is it only in northern Ireland? nothing against them but its not as easy to see it any more. It used to go all over Ireland. Why not any more?

BFassassin

You can watch the Lisburn Power Stage here from 5:30 this evening

http://www.utvdrive.co.uk/circuit-of-ireland/live

shedweller

Thank you! Watching it now.:D

the_doctor199

Anyone got a link to where todays stages are? The official site is nothing short of useless, the map (below) is too small to get any real info out of it!

Solair

It'll be a rather small circuit of its just Northern Ireland.

280special

First , the Circuit stopped being a proper circuit more years ago that i care to remember !

One of the first major changes was when it stopped going down to Kerry, I cant comment on the official reason that was given but what i do know is that a lot of people got fed up with the way prices of everything from accomodation to a burger were pumped up for the Easter weekend when the providers knew they had a captive audience, hell of a thing to visit the same places again a week or two later and find the prices well reduced !! But the big change came with rule changes from the international bodies in the 80's about the length and time scale of rallies , along with problems with insurance , because of this great rallies were destroyed not just the circuit but also Galway, Donegal and a lot of the UK rallies including what was called in my day the Lombard RAC/ Network Q round of the WRC. Some of them are still there but only as a shadow of the great events they were.

And as regards the map...now in all honesty would you go out and spend E12.50 on a Rallypack (sorry it isnt a pack anymore its just a booklet !) if you could see exactly where the stages were by looking at their website?? They aint going to make it that easy or cheap !!

washman3

yeah, like everything greed, kilarney hotels and pubs became a total rip-off similar to the way the rose of tralee was finished,publicans charging to drink in pubs,closing for an hour in the evening and recharging the same people to go back in again. hotel rooms 4 times the cost of normal. remember it well,rally itself was brillant,ideally suited to kilarney. shame.

wobbles

The same thing is happening for every major rally in Ireland at the moment. I think its more to do with insurance these days.

Id prefer to see the circut move location each year. Base it in the north one year, wicklow/wexford the next year whichever motorlub wants to run it. This will never happen though

the_doctor199

280special wrote: »

And as regards the map...now in all honesty would you go out and spend E12.50 on a Rallypack (sorry it isnt a pack anymore its just a booklet !) if you could see exactly where the stages were by looking at their website?? They aint going to make it that easy or cheap !!

I totally understand they need to make money, but it was far too difficult to find any information on it at all and no signposts to the two stages I went to made them extremely difficult to find.

washman3

wobbles wrote: »

The same thing is happening for every major rally in Ireland at the moment. I think its more to do with insurance these days.

Id prefer to see the circut move location each year. Base it in the north one year, wicklow/wexford the next year whichever motorlub wants to run it. This will never happen though

quite true wobbles, would you think if the motor clubs were to join together and take control as it comes thru their area this might work? during the great days of the 70s and 80s i think it started with a stage in Pheonix park,moved on to wexford/waterford,thru north cork/west limerick,then the main event in kilarney,moving on to galwaymayo before finishing in NI (usually belfast) i stand to be corrected on this route.! but it was great. night stages were really popular. was glued to sporsnews to hear the latest standings.!!!

biomech

The circuit is run by the ulster automobile club and always has been (with alot of help from neighbouring clubs), thats why the now shorter circuit is run up north and always will be. We will never see a big circuit again for the simple reason of costs...
Now adays for a 1 day national or 2 day international events the entry fees are 480ish and 950ish respectively, this entry goes almost entirely towards the money grabbing insurance companies and the money grabbing county councils for road closing orders. So my best geuss would be a 5 day event nowadays would cost roughly 2500+ per crew on entry alone. Most top crews could spend that and more per day during the event which means to complete a modern day circuit you'd be down minimum 10,000 to attempt an event with no prize money....... im no big time fancy accountant but for that reason im out:)

Cormac2791

It was up with us in Monaghan this year around Emyvale and Castleblayney last year anyway, it's not just north of the border!

biomech

well you can see where the insurance companies are coming from, high risk catagory to say the least, remember this is public liability insurance not rally car insurance we are talking about, this is the insurance that the club must subscribe to in order to run the event, car/driver insurance is a different kettle of fish

BUT the road closing costs for an event are ridiculous, the council have no cost associated with a road closure, the clubs pay for and do everything.

All said we have little to complain about, tarmac special stage rallying is but a dream in alot of countries like the UK so as long as i and many others can convince ourselves that the costs have yet to get too much, well keep her lit.

Dont get too down in the dumps cause you cant see the circuit of ireland because its too far away, theres a national or international event near everyone in the country at some stage throughout the year, go see them and youll see some real talent on irish tarmac.

De Hipster

I went to spectate on both Saturday (Armagh area) & Sunday (North Monaghan), there were very few spectators out overall - had no problems getting to or from the stages.

The calibre of competitors isn't a patch on what the Circuit used to offer 10/15/20/30 years ago & the coverage for all the improvements in technology is hardly worthy of note when compared to the nightly bulletins of years past – check youtube for circuit coverage from the early 80’s.

The UAC have a lot to answer for when it comes to the downward spiral of the Circuit & soured relationships with local motorclubs nationwide, but also it is very relevant that crews just don't have the funds anymore & cost have increased substantially.

Bobby Willis has taken the Circuit under his wing and is working diligently to improve the event and capture some of the lost glory of the old days – but there has been a lot of damage to this event over the years & competitors do not seem to have their weight behind it as much as say, Bertie Fisher et al did years ago.

Rallying is a less and less popular sport in recent years, politically incorrect & often held to count for many tragic road accidents which are not connected to events, clubs or competitors. Motorsport needs a PR officer in Ireland to dissipate the ‘dangerous’ image it now firmly holds. An example of this is the regular reports on RTÉ relating to incidents involving people near or en route to events, yet little or no coverage of events, results or particularly event with no incidents in the National Championship.

Everyone needs to do what they can to help secure the future of the Irish Rally Calendar for the future.

reiger

shedweller wrote: »

As the title suggests, why is it only in northern Ireland? nothing against them but its not as easy to see it any more. It used to go all over Ireland. Why not any more?

not to clued in there sir! since when is monaghan in the north.event was based in armagh it covered counties Tyrone Monaghan Armagh and Down,as international rallies go now a days this is covering a decent area it is no longer viable to run an all ireland event.

reiger

De Hipster wrote: »

I went to spectate on both Saturday (Armagh area) & Sunday (North Monaghan), there were very few spectators out overall - had no problems getting to or from the stages.

The calibre of competitors isn't a patch on what the Circuit used to offer 10/15/20/30 years ago & the coverage for all the improvements in technology is hardly worthy of note when compared to the nightly bulletins of years past – check youtube for circuit coverage from the early 80’s.

The UAC have a lot to answer for when it comes to the downward spiral of the Circuit & soured relationships with local motorclubs nationwide, but also it is very relevant that crews just don't have the funds anymore & cost have increased substantially.

Bobby Willis has taken the Circuit under his wing and is working diligently to improve the event and capture some of the lost glory of the old days – but there has been a lot of damage to this event over the years & competitors do not seem to have their weight behind it as much as say, Bertie Fisher et al did years ago.

Rallying is a less and less popular sport in recent years, politically incorrect & often held to count for many tragic road accidents which are not connected to events, clubs or competitors. Motorsport needs a PR officer in Ireland to dissipate the ‘dangerous’ image it now firmly holds. An example of this is the regular reports on RTÉ relating to incidents involving people near or en route to events, yet little or no coverage of events, results or particularly event with no incidents in the National Championship.

Everyone needs to do what they can to help secure the future of the Irish Rally Calendar for the future.

very much disagree with ya about Rallying been less popular were you in Monaghan last weekend Top Top class entry huge crowds,cavan, donegal international,sligo,donegal harvest in the comming months will not dissapoint.
one reason the Circuit suffered is its was on a bad weekend this year a week before the lakes and a week after Monaghan alot of rallies and some guys just could not do the rallies as the car just would not be able to be out one week after another with the like rebuilds etc etc having to be done.

jasus thats Bull about it has a dangerous image come on:mad: yes there has been incidents but it has not harmed the sport like you say.
the sport is like most things suffering from the down turn mainly at the top level as many clubmen are still pluging away.

wobbles

Kind of off topic but i dont think rallying is fading in popularity, in fact theres more spectators on the stages these days as its the only sport to watch for free these days.
Rallying is changing in Ireland at the moment though as the top boys cant afford to run WRCs anymore. I think this year the International championship has lost its way a bit and been overtaken by the National championship since last year.
I think MI needs to make a radical decision and ban WRC's from scoring points in the international championship from next year. Encourage gpN drivers to challenge for top honours and attract 4wd cars over from England next year when they cant run over there.

matty55

I think the national series is taking up where the likes of the Circuit of Ireland left off in terms of entries and competition. As said above huge crowds and a brilliant entry in Monaghan. There were drivers from England, Wales and all over Ireland and some top class machinery!! A lot of drivers are turing to the national series because it is a cheaper alternative to the tarmac championship. As for insurance I think it costs a motorclub somewhere in the region of 10 to 20 grand for insurance for a one day event for the national series so you can imagine what that would cost to insure the circuit if it were to go countrywide again. The only way it could return to the old format is if maybe we got some government funding and thats not gonna happen anytime soon!!!!! But the Lisburn stage was a good idea!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDhi49Fl1dE

overshoot

i think wrc cars have to go. everything is just too expensive now. its a shame the Donegal International is the only 3 day rally left (i think).
rallying is still popular if the crowds get a chance they will come, 70,000 (up from 50000) were expected at last years donegal with the return of a town stage... done really know how that panned out in the end after everything