News
Killarney Historic Rally 2017
K
KILLARNEY AND DISTRICT MOTOR CLUB announced details of this year’s Killarney Historic Stages Rally. Ireland’s only event to cater solely for historic rally cars and night stage rallying is set to run on Saturday, December 2.
The rally will count as the first round of the 2018 Irish Tarmac Historic Rally Championship and final 2017 rounds in the Southern Four Rally Championship and HRCR Stage Masters Challenge.
Event clerk of the course Kevin Flannery and his Killarney and District Motor Club team have built this year’s rally around the competitor and in doing so have selected a route of the most classic famous stages Killarney has to offer. We recognize the competitors’ attraction to the event and the uniqueness that the Killarney Historic Rally holds worldwide, offering the competitor 110km of competitive stages, Centralised service area at Liebherr Container Cranes, Killarney, and the popular feature of the final stage to be run in the darkness.
The event, which provides a welcome end-of-season boost to Ireland’s tourism capital and is worth millions to the local economy, will once again be hosted at The Gleneagle Hotel as Rally Headquarters.
TV coverage of the event will be televised on RTÉ, TG4, Setanta Sports, Motors TV and SkySports throughout the Christmas period.
The rally starts on Friday evening with a ceremonial start in Main Street, Killarney, at 7pm. The real action gets underway on Saturday morning with the iconic “Molls Gap”, often rated by rally drivers as being the best and one of the most-challenging stages in the world. Followed by the mountainous Beallaghbeama Pass the crews head into service at Liebherr Container Cranes.
This Loop of Molls Gap and Beallaghbeama is repeated with the addition of the fast flowing Caragh Lake stage. After a well-earned service break the crews tackle Caragh Lake for a second time and followed by a new version of the Rockfield stage. Crews return to service once again as they prepare for the night stage and the second run over Rockfield under the cover of darkness.