The lowdown on Ireland's WRC bid

It could be perceived to be somewhat strange that some of the eyes of the rally world aren't on Monte Carlo this deep into January.

But we've been here before, 15 years ago in fact, when indeed it was Ireland which hosted the opening round of the World Rally Championship - not the famous principality.

If everything goes as planned, Ireland will return to the WRC next year and stay there until 2027. WRC Promoter is understood to be happy with Motorsport Ireland's proposal - which uniquely includes three separate service park locations across the three years - so the only stumbling block is funding from the government.

An all too familiar hurdle for rally organisers (just ask Bobby Willis who tirelessly tried to bring the WRC to Northern Ireland), but there's cautious optimism that Rally Ireland should receive the backing it needs from the Irish government to make this dream a reality.

There are plenty of people longing for a world championship return to the Emerald Isle, so to understand more about the bid and what happens next, Minoia booked some time with Motorsport Ireland president Aiden Harper who explained it all:

Working together has been key

Anybody who has ever visited Ireland will know how hospitable a place it is. There's a real community spirit everywhere you turn, and that's been no different with Rally Ireland.

There will undoubtedly be individuals - official or not - that would prefer to have a potential WRC event in their area, but the onus has been on making sure this bid is a collective effort.

"I think there's going to be great teamwork and collaboration in bringing this event together," Harper tells Minoia.

"We have looked at, and what I have certainly looked at, is to be inclusive right from the very start.

"Our approach and methodology around this was inclusivity - bringing everyone together and explaining to everybody at the very start we're on the one journey to deliver the World Rally Championship to our country, to the island of Ireland.

"I think that's what's really brought everybody onboard. There's a huge hunger for it, our last event was in 2009 and we want to bring it back."

Why three service parks?

Tuesday January 9 was a big day for Irish rallying this year. Motorsport Ireland had called a press conference in Dublin to confirm the location for its proposed WRC event.

It was so big that popular Irish media service Onthepacenote obliterated its record for concurrent live viewers!

Would it be Tralee, Limerick or Waterford?

WRC Promoter had joined MI officials during the selection process, with detailed site visits the year before. The anticipation was palpable.

The announcement that it would actually be all three was, to be frank, a disappointing anti-climax. But there's plenty of merit in the decision.

"We couldn't actually pick an outright [best]," Harper explains. "Each of them were unique in what they had to offer.

"Take Tralee and Limerick, the south west of the country, the iconic stages up in Killarney, up in Tralee, up in Limerick there, incredible backdrops for WRC helicopter footage and all of that that goes with it.

"Then you take the east of the country which is the ancient east as they call it. Again iconic areas, old Circuit of Ireland stages and we just couldn't differentiate between the three of them."

And the idea of having a different service park location isn't as strange as it may seem.

What you get with a Club Minoia membership

You can be part of a growing community and help shape Minoia with either an Affiliate or Full membership

MinoiaRob Hansford

Harper adds: "Take Monte Carlo for example; Monte Carlo is down in the marina for the service park one year and then they're back up in Gap, so there is a proven model out there of moving the service park around.

"But there is a bit of nervousness about it as well because you'd like to have your service park anchored for three years with the ancillaries etc in place, but we believe we can do this with the three venues by using the same management team.

"That's going to be the key to it. It'll be the same operational, delivery, management team on the ground that will deliver the three-year project."

Different stages will be used each year

Given Rally Ireland remains a proposal for now, we don't know which of the three service park locations will host in 2025, which will take '26 and then where the rally heads in '27.

But it appears as if the stages will be different each year - particularly when the event heads east to Waterford.

While Tralee in county Kerry is a shade over 100km south of Limerick, both are on Ireland's west coast and could therefore use similar stages. Waterford is actually only 20km further from Limerick than Tralee is, but its position in the east means it would utilise an entirely different region of Ireland's famous rally roads.

"The two service parks in the south west are very close to each other, Limerick and Tralee. I can definitely see synergies of stages there, from traditional down at Cod's Head right up into Limerick," says Harper.

"In the east they would be completely different stages but I think what's unique about the three different locations and what would be attractive for the teams coming over is it's not just the same old, same old.

"There's going to be something different each year which, right now if you see WRC, a lot of it is repetitive. I think it would be quite a new challenge for teams."

The all-important deadline

The big next step in Rally Ireland's WRC bid is securing funding from the government to underwrite the event.

Harper is looking to have that secured as soon as possible.

"By the first week of March I'd like to commit to the [WRC] promoter that we're good to go," he says. "We already have terms of contracts, we've a lot of things in place we just need the funding to be confirmed."

But here's the really encouraging part:

"I don't fear the funding - it is making its way through the major bids section of the Irish government. There has been communication forward and back, all of it positive, but again you don't know you have it until you have the contract signed in front of you.

"There's been a big political movement as you've maybe seen from the various [press] releases. The way that this process has brought various political leaders, from various ministers of state through the chambers of commerce, to county council, the police force, the ambulance service, there haven't sat together in forums like this for years in Ireland.

"People have never seen the broad spectrum of top-ranking brass sitting together around the table when we've gone to visit the locations, so I think that for itself speaks of the local buy-in from the ministers, right through to the top sitting ranking ministers.

"Everybody is 100% behind it."

A potential 'new dawn' for Ireland

It's easy to understand why that would be the case.

Few nations can challenge Ireland's passion for rallying, and after a bruising year in 2023 for the entire country (William Creighton's Junior WRC title) aside, a WRC move on home soil could be the boost everybody needs.

"Rallying is extremely strong in Ireland, and it's getting stronger," believes Harper.

"Just look at the recent announcement there from William Creighton and the commitment to WRC for this year. We had a Junior world champion last year, the first one since Craig Breen many, many years ago so that's very, very encouraging for us.

"Last year was a very tough year in Irish sport, we lost three Irish competition license holders at home and one abroad being Craig. But they were lost in competition so they were lost in something that they loved, something that their families loved, I think this would be a new dawn for us, delivering this event in honour to those who have passed away - especially Craig.

"Craig would have absolutely loved to have the world championship on his doorstep at home, there's no doubt about that, and I think this would be a right and fitting time for it to happen."