Organised by the Carrick-on-Suir Motor Club, the rally will be based in Carrick-on-Suir with the headquarters in the Carraig Hotel.

Top young rally driver Craig Breen wlll compete in the rally to fine tune his new €270,000 Ford Fiesta Super 2000, in preparation for the opening round of the British Rally Championship and the second round of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship.

Barry Duggan steps up this year to Clerk of the Course and he welcomes competitors, officials and spectators to the Club’s first rally of the year. The event will feature four stage locations, two of which will be repeated and two will be covered once with a total stage distance of 68km. The stages will be located near Ahenny, the Anner, Gurteen and Clondonnell.

Barry also reports that all the stages are in excellent condition and the rally will see the club run 20Km of the famous Gurteen special stage. The 2010 event will be counting rounds in Round 2 of the Petro Systems National Forestry Championship and Round 2 of the Trition Showers South East Stages Rally Championship.

As an extra feature, the club has introduced a three-point incentive package consisting of television coverage of the rally by Mick Bracken of On the Limit Sports, all paid entries to the event by the entry closing date of February 26 to be entered in a draw and a reduced introductory entry fee for drivers who have never competed in a forestry rally before.

The plan has proved very successful, as entries have flooded in and a very exciting event looks to be on the cards next weekend.

On the second weekend in February, the Petro Systems National Forestry Championship got underway in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, with the Sean Conlon Memorial Forest Rally. Tipperary driver Pat O’Connell got his season off to a great start by taking victory.

O’Connell, last season’s runner-up in the championship. was pushed by Carrick Club members Andrew Purcell and Brian Daniels until their Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 9 went out on the last stage with an engine fire. The top three on the podium were completed by Dubliner John Reid in second place with his Toyota Corolla WRC and in third Seamus O’Connell with his Mk11 Escort.

This weekend Purcell and Daniels will be out to regain lost points and on home ground will be the crew to watch. They will be hoping for better luck in the Derek Jobb back EVO 9. Other club members to watch out for include James Coleman in his Mk11 escort. Coleman was also a non- finisher in Mitchelstown and will be pushing over his home stages on Sunday.

Another crew in a Mk11 to look out for will be Alan Commins and Paul Collins.