The Quality Hotel Clonakilty West Cork Rally 2015 is on this coming weekend and there is a sense of excitement and anticipation around the town of Clonakilty for the second round of the Clonakilty Blackpudding Irish Tarmac Rally Championship.

All categories are currently full with almost 200 cars due to compete on the event this coming St. Patricks weekend, and the rally has one of its strongest ever line ups. Top seeds are last year’s winners Donagh Kelly & Kevin Flanagan in their Focus WRC and this crew currently lead the Tarmac Championship after their fine win in Galway last month.  The reigning Tarmac Champions, Declan & Brian Boyle are at 2 in a Subaru Impreza WRC and despite not having competed in Clonakilty before will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing fifth overall in Galway when road penalties cost them a potential win. Another former winner is at 3 as Daragh O’Riordan wheels out his Fiesta WRC and he will have Derryman Tony McDaid on the notes as always. Daragh won this event in 2012 and retired from third place late on last year’s event so will be hoping for better luck this year.

The fourth seeds are Sam Moffett & Karl Atkinson who are also Fiesta WRC mounted and Sam is currently lying third in the championship. Sam has competed a couple of times in Clonakilty in the past so will be no stranger to the nature of the roads in West Cork. Melvyn Evans was a first stage retirement last year and the two time winner will be hoping for better luck in 2015. Melvyn will be co-driven by Mark Glennerster and drives an Impreza WRC S12. Rounding off a quality top six are Josh Moffett & John Rowan who are making their first attempt at West Cork in another Fiesta WRC and will be looking to build on a fine fourth place in Galway.

Mechanical Scrutiny will take place at Clonakilty Car Care on Friday 13th March from 3pm to 9.30pm, while Documentation Scrutiny will take place upstairs in the Quality Hotel from 3pm until 10pm. Parc Ferme is in the Model Railway Village as usual and the cars will leave here at 10.30am to tackle the first stage on Saturday morning, which is the classic Ring test. Eight stages will be completed with service after every two at Darrara Agricultural College. Sunday will see the first car leave Parc Ferme at 11am and head into service before tackling the fabulous Ardfield stage which is on the beautiful Wild Atlantic Way route. Three stages in total are tackled before service, and those stages are repeated in the late afternoon before the first car arrives at the finish ramp at approximately 4.15pm.

The Stages for the weekend are as follows;
Stage 1 & 3 Ring
Stage 2 & 4 Clogagh
Stage 5 & 7 Newcestown
Stage 6 & 8 Ballinascarthy
Stage 9 & 12 Ardfield
Stage 10 & 13 Sams Cross
Stage 11 & 14 Rossmore

You can keep up to date with live results on http://results.westcorkrally.com over the weekend while there will also be updates on Twitter (@westcorkrally) & Facebook (West Cork Rally).