Cork 20 Rally


The Cork 20 Rally, Cork 20 International Rally is an annual motorsport rallying event run by the Munster Car Club and held in the vicinity of Cork in Munster province of Ireland. The Cork 20 Rally is one of the oldest motorsport rallies in the world, the first rally was held in 1912.
It run as a round within the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, and draws competitors from Ireland North and South, Britain, Europe and elsewhere. The rally was part of the National Rally Championship between 1966 and 1976. It became a full international rally in 1977.

History

The event has been run in different parts of County Cork since the 1960s, with Kinsale acting as the main hub throughout the 1970s, with Cork city being 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.
In 2007, WRC drivers Sébastien Loeb, Daniel Sordo, and Mikko Hirvonen all started the rally heading a field of 130 of which 17 were World Rally Cars. Sébastien Loeb won the competition after two days and 14 stages.
The event has been run by various organisers since 1912. In the 1950s, the Cork and Munster Motorcycle Club, based at the neo-classical building Vernon Mount, gave their support to the Cork 20 Rally. With various affiliations, the Cork Motor Club became active in motorsport in the Cork area from 1976 onwards. As of 2019, the event was being run by the Munster Car Club.

2019

The 2019 CB Toolhire Cork 20 International Rally event took place on 28 and 29 September 2019. The rally was the final counting round of the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, a counting round of the ERT Celtic Rally Trophy, Southern 4 Rally Championship & South East Stages Rally Championship.
The race was ran by Paul Browne, Clerk Of The Course and the Deputy COC Brian McCarthy. The rally consisted of 13 special stages, totaling to, and of liaison. A total of 187 entries were enlisted to the event. The overall winners were the International Class entrants Marty McCormack & Barney Mitchell who debuted in Cork 20 with a new Volkswagen Polo R5 - also a debut in Ireland. The 'national section' of the rally was won by Damian Toner & Michael Coady competing in the Modified Class. The Junior Class winners were Kieran Reen & Mark O'Leary.

2020

The rally was scheduled to take place on 26-27 September 2020. In the light of on-going restrictions to prevent COVID-19 pandemic, on the the Munster Car Club board of directors took a decision to cancel this year's rally. Irish Tarmac Rally Championship has been already cancelled in late April.

Winners