Rally star MacHale to drive Focus WRC in local retro run

In the glory days of Irish rallying, Easter meant the Circuit of Ireland, a long distance classic that attracted the best drivers in Ireland and Europe.

The event is confined to Armagh and Tyrone this year and takes place on April 18 and 19 next. The memories of the old event remain, and some of the circuit stage names are classics that will sound familiar to enthusiasts of a certain age.

The Westmeath and District Motor Club Retro Run on this Easter Sunday revisits five of them in 180km tour of the midlands. They are Footy's Hill, Sion Hill, Archerstown, Gigginstown and Clogherinkoe.

There’s more, though; Austin MacHale, the five-time Irish rally champion, is taking part in a WRC Ford Focus. A retro run is a social tour, not a competitive, timed event, but MacHale’s presence adds serious clout to this event.

MacHale won his first Irish championship 42 years ago, in a Vauxhall Chevette HSR with Christy Farrell as co-driver, and the duo repeated that success in 1985 and 1986 in an Open Manta 400. MacHale took two more titles in a Toyota Celica GT-Four ST185 with Brian Murphy as co-driver, in 1997 and 1998. He had a great rivalry with the late Bertie Fisher in many of those years.

MacHale was also runner-up in the British Rally Championship in 2003, 2004, and 2005, and he scored many over successes in a long career.

The retro run starts at noon on Easter Sunday from the Hamlet Court Hotel in Johnstownbridge, County Kildare, and it will pass through Castlepollard at around 1.30/2pm. Fans can see the cars and meet the crews at the Top Oil garage on the Mullingar road, before they head off and back to the Hamlet Court..