Cork 20 Rally

Sébastien Loeb 2007 Cork 20 rally winner

The Cork 20 Rally is a long standing motor endurance test lasting twenty hours which is held annually in the vicinity of Cork in Munster, Ireland. It is now a well established international event, and a round of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship drawing competitors from Ireland North and South, Britain, Europe and further afield. The rally was part of the National Rally Championship between 1966 & 1976. It became a full International Rally in 1977.

Currently run under the auspices of the Munster Car Club, the Cork 20 Rally is one of the oldest motor rallys in the world, the 2010 event will be the 95th. The first rally was held in 1912.

In the 1950s the Cork and Munster Motorcycle Club, based at the neo-classical building Vernon Mount gave strong support to the Cork 20 Rally.

In 2007 WRC drivers Sébastien Loeb C4 WRC, Daniel Sordo Xsara WRC, Mikko Hirvonen Focus RS WRC 06/07 all started the rally heading a field of 130 of which 17 were World Rally Cars . With Sébastien Loeb winning out after two days and 14 stages.

The recent courses are in the region of 280 km (170 mi) in length.

Winners

Organisers

Organisers of the Cork "20" Rally are the Munster Motor Cycle & Car Club Ltd. Vernon Mount,Kinsale Rd Cork. Clerks of the Course are as follows :

General History

The event has been run in most parts of Cork county since the 1960s, Kinsale was the main hub throughout the 1970s while Cork city has been home to the event a few times also. The final stage of the 1980 event started on Patrick Street and went through Grand Parade and the South Mall in front of thousands of spectators. In later years the event has run in the north and east Cork regions with various forays into mid Cork as well and the event returned to West Cork in 2010.

The format of the original rally was similar to the Monte Carlo Rally, in that there were several starting points; Cork, Dublin and Galway. The cars would then meet at a designated town, e.g. Clonmel. The final leg would be from there into Cork city. The roads were not officially closed for these early events.

With various affiliations, the Cork Motor Club became very active in motorsport in the Cork area from 1976 on.