Skibbereen & District Car Club are delighted to announce details of this year's Fastnet Rally.

After the success of last year’s event, The West Cork Hotel, on the banks of the Ilen River in Skibbereen will again be the Main Sponsor and Event Headquarters. This means that Scrutiny, Park Ferme and Rally Headquarters are all within a few hundred metres of each other, a feature that proved very popular in 2006.Clerk of the Course Michael O’Riordan and his team of dedicated assistants have chosen a new format of stages for the 2007 running of the rally. “We wanted to shorten the time crews spent out of the stages, but retain the challenge for competitors.” said Michael.

The 2007 West Cork Hotel Fastnet Rally will feature a 7 stage format, one less that previous years, but with an increase in stage kilometres. This has been achieved by using a loop of three stages of almost 20 km each, preceded by an opening 10km stage just outside the host town of Skibbereen.

Deputy COC Kieran O’Callaghan added, “I have no doubt that this new route will ensure that whoever lifts the Fastnet Rock Sculpture at prize giving on Sunday 28th October will have worked hard over the weekend to deserve the honour. “

The West Cork Hotel - Fastnet Stages Rally will be the final round of the Dunlop National Rally Championship and the 023 Tiles Southern 4 Championship. Although the overall National Championship has been decided, there are still many class positions to be settled in Skibbereen over the bank holiday weekend. The Rally will also be a counting round in The Skibbereen and District Car Club Championship.