BATTLE RESUMES IN IRELAND...
The battle for honours in the 2007 Hankook MSA Gravel Rally Championship crosses the Irish Sea this weekend when competitors descend on Killarney in Co. Kerry for the penultimate round of the ANCRO-organised series which will see the two-horse race for the title resume on The Malton 2007 Killarney Stages Rally.

In an entirely new venture for both crews and organisers, the classic South Western forests of the Irish Republic will play host to the battle between former ANCRO champions Marcus Dodd and Steve Perez on Sunday's event and whilst it is 2004 ANCRO National Champion Perez from Chesterfield who leads the standings thanks to a win and four other podium placings in his Ford Focus WRC, Dorset businessman Dodd have been in the ascendancy as of late with two successive wins and are looking to close the gap even further in their Hyundai Accent WRC.

But the big factor in the equation is that crews have to drop two scores from the seven rounds and with one DNF to Dodd so far when he rolled out of the Border Counties Rally in March, coupled with Perez's amazing consistency of scoring on all rounds to date; it means that nothing will be decided just yet but if Dodd leads Perez over the finish ramp for the fifth time this season, all he will need to make it a third title success would be a finish on the season-ending Bulldog Rally in October.

Rather disappointingly, only another half dozen other crews are making the trip over to the Emerald Isle including recently-crowned Subaru Group N Trophy winner Jock Armstrong and other ANCRO regulars Harry Dodd and Jonathan Sparks as well as Trevor Martin and Alan Cookson andwith the event comprising rounds of the HPM Motorsport 2WD and VK1400 Challenges, Andover farmer Rod Bennett will be looking to add to his points score.

The organisers have not yet released the route details or a seeded entry list but details will be available later in the week at www.killarneyanddistrictmotorclub.com

Championship Positions and other information is available at www.gravelrally.co.uk.