MAURICE MALONE T
RALLYING IN IRELAND “Where does prize money get you in rallying?”
he Billy Coleman Award: where from here?
As with every other year, the nominees for the Billy Coleman Award represented some of the best young rallying talent that this small island has to offer. Eight young drivers, all chosen based on their performances on various events or through championship victories, all thoroughly deserving of their shot at the 50,000 euro (£44,154.00) prize.
The candidates were quizzed at Motorsport Ireland HQ on everything from car set-up to fitness. The judging panel included individuals from different spheres of the sport including competition, organisation, PR and media, as well as a representative from Sport Ireland. From that the final three were chosen – Kevin Eves, Jonny Treanor, and Callum Devine.
You’ve probably already heard that Devine scooped the prize at a ceremony in Dublin last week, the icing on the cake for the Derry man after a hugely successful 2017.
Callum is heading for the JWRC next year, a huge opportunity.
To the casual observer, the Billy Coleman Award could therefore be seen to be doing its job of springboarding young talent to further success. A quick glance down through the list of winners reveals names like Keith Cronin (2007) and Craig Breen (2009), the former a multiple British champion, the latter a Citroen factory driver with a big future at the sport’s top level.
However, dig a little deeper, and questions start to arise. What happened to recent winners Rob Duggan, Dean Raftery, and Daniel Mckenna? All three had showed huge promise, before their stints in the WRC’S junior ranks petered out. They didn’t wake up one morning to find their talent had suddenly disappeared; Duggan’s onboard from last weekend’s Killarney Historic Rally is a graphic demonstration of that.
Scan back up to the figure at the end of the first paragraph: 50,000 euro. It’s a lot of money to most people, especially so for a club competitor. Unfortunately, for someone with the aspiration, commitment and talent to reach the pinnacle of the sport, but no big budget to add to the prize fund, it’s almost fruitless.
Motorsport is expensive, we all know that. In Ireland, it’s become almost prohibitively so. The Award process highlighted a fundamental flaw with the Junior categories: some of the drivers are setting top-10 times overall, and while there’s no doubting that they’re phenomenally fast pilots, they’re using 20-year-old Honda Civics that are so highly developed they may as well be Formula 2 cars at this stage. Yet, the rules allow this. What hope does a guy starting out have in a Group N version of the same basic vehicle?
What can be done? I’ve run out of space in this particular column, but there are options.
Tighter Junior regulations should have been enforced years ago, and maybe a look at what governing bodies on the continent do for their young talent wouldn’t go amiss. The sport is in the throes of a major crisis in this country as it is. It needs to change, and fast.