Sun Shines on Motorsport Festival

The Carrick-on-Suir Motor Club organized a Festival of Motorsport which was held at Belline Estate, Piltown, Co. Kilkenny.The event took place over the weekend of the 7th and 8th of June to mark the clubs Golden Jubilee. The main aim of the festival was to raise as much funding as possible for two most worthy hospitals, namely The National RehabilitationHospital (formerly Dun Laoghaire Rehabilitation Centre) and The Children’s Medical & Research Foundation (formerly Crumlin Children’s Hospital). 

With blue skies and temperatures soaring motorsport enthusiasts came flooding through the gates. All disciplines of motorsport were represented in a static show, Including Rally, Race, Autotest, Autocross, Rallycross, Karting, Hillclimb, Hot Rod and drift cars. Other displays that attended are Motorcycles, Vintage Cars, Vintage Tractors, Machinery & Stationary Engines. In all there was 1,000 vehicles on displayover the weekend on 70 acres of land.

The biggest attractions were Helicopter rides kindly provided by eirecopter.ie and a Tarctor Pulling Display (As seen on TV) but what stole the show was a Rally Car Experience featuring James Foley Rallysport. 

Other attractions were Gareth Lloyd of West Wales Rally Spares Ex Works Roger Clarke RS 1800 Mark 11 Escort, Ferrari F1 car, Red Bull supported the event on both days with events, games & music. Gareth and Aaron McHale’s Ford Focus WRC carswere on display in the main arena plus a large range of other rally cars.

Apart from motorsport based activities there was a family area with bouncy castles and a Children’s play area. The Dunbrody Archers also provided a different type of event and a great family day out.

Special Guests over the two days were Rosemary Smith the most successful Lady Rally Driver ever in Ireland and Eugene Donnelly the current Irish Tarmac Champion.

On Sunday afternoon a raffle was held with first prize a Nissan Car, other great prizes included a Holiday Voucher worth €1,500, a day testing with a world rally car driver, free entry to this years Ravens Rock Rally and A day at rallyconnection rally school.

During the raffle Edel O’Malley representing The Children’s Medical & Research Foundation and Pat Cribbon representing The National RehabilitationHospital thanked the club for selecting them as the beneficiaries of the monies raised.

All funding raised will presented to the charities on the 29th on June in the Carraig Hotel during the prize giving of the Ravens Rock Rally.

Carrick on Suir Motor Club make Presentation of over €90,000.

In Funds Raised From Their Festival of Motorsport.  (By Trevor Mc Grath)

Over the weekend of the 7th and 8th of June last the Carrick on Suir motor Club held a Festival of Motorsport and Vintage to mark the clubs Golden Jubilee. The main aim of the festival was to raise as much funding as possible for two most worthy hospitals, namely The National Rehabilitation Hospital (formerly Dun Laoghaire Rehabilitation Centre) and The Children’s Medical & Research Foundation (formerly Crumlin Children’s Hospital). The festival reached its culmination on Friday night last the 25th of July as the club made the Presentation of the monies raised over the festival weekend to both charities.

The presentation took place at the Piltown GAA complex, Piltown, Co.Kilkenny. A large crowd were present including members of the funds raising committee, members of the Iverk show committee and representatives from both charities. George Clancy compared the evening and started by making the first speech.

George spoke about the unbelievable effort made by the 30 strong team of the festival committee headed by James Coleman. He also went on to state that in his fifty years involvement in the Carrick on Suir Motor Club and Motorsport in Ireland that over the festival weekend was his proudest time. Quoting “To see a mixture of older members and younger people in the club coming together with one common goal to mark the golden jubilee of the club and in turn raise funds for charity was awe-inspiring”. George went on the say that “from the initial idea and first club meetings, right through the process of organizing the festival would not have happened without the leadership of the committee chairman James Coleman”. “The recourses and professional approach that James brought to the even was a testament to his character”.

Next to speak was festival committee chairman James Coleman. James started by welcoming all to the presentation and stating “that tonight was the conclusion of over a years hard work by a very strong hard working group of motorsport people the Carrick on Suir Motor Club”. He spoke about when the idea was first mentioned to him by Michael Haley and Connie Delaney to hold the festival to mark the 50th anniversary of the club and also proposing the venue of the Belline Estate and “from that early stage of forming a committee and setting out a plan it was a honour to be involved with the people who stepped up to the challenge”. James went on to say “that when it was decided that all disciplines in motorsport would be represented at the festival that he had no reservations of holding a show that had a very professional look to it”. He said that the vast experience of the committee members had from organizing events came to the fore”. James also spoke about the decision of choosing the two charities. “Firstly the National Rehabilitation Hospital because of the impact the Hospital has on helping the casualties of motorsport related injuries and the Children’s Medical & Research Foundation in Crumlin because Carrick on Suir motor club and Motor clubs throughout the country use public roads to hold events every year and this was a way to pay back the residents on the stages. All of us know a family that has suffered the hard luck of a child of being diagnosed with cancer so the children’s medical and research foundation was one of the charities put forward.

James finished with thanking the Iverk show committee for their years of expertise’s on running a show of this size and their on the ground help over the festival weekend. He also thanked the Carrick on Suir Sergeant Jim Connelly and local Gardi, Members from the Faugheen 50 road race club, The County Council, The Piltown GAA club, Kildalton College, Teagasc and club members that helped marshal on the weekend of the festival.

Without the help of these people and organizations the event would not have been possible.

The first presentation of a cheque was to Catriona McGioln from the Children’s Medical & Research Foundation in Crumlin. Catriona is an accountant working for the Foundation and up on receiving the cheque for €45,441.oo was overwhelmed by the amount of money raised by a small motor club. She went on to speak about how the money would make a big difference to the Hospital. One of the many research projects that the foundation is currently involved with is the research into cancer genetics. The programme is specializing in the research of into neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is a childhood cancer that develops in nerve cells in a part of the nervous system (autonomic nervous system) and in the adrenal glands. About two-thirds of neuroblastomas start in the abdomen. Half of these start in the adrenal glands and the other half in abdominal ganglia (clusters of nerve cells). The remaining one-third occurs in ganglia in the chest, neck, pelvis or spinal cord. Catriona stated that this kind of donation would make a huge difference to help with on going research.

Representing the National Rehabilitation Hospital were Aoife Kelly and Riona Nolan. They both echoed the words or praise for the club and thanked James and the club for choosing them as one of the beneficiaries of the funds raised. Aoife told how that Riona and herself are occupational therapists and are currently working with spinal injuries and that the money would be a great help.