John Kenny's Motorsport Blog
After a terrific 2009 for Irish international motor racing drivers, 2010 also offers the chance of yet more success for those plying their trade beyond our borders this year, writes RTÉ Sport's John Kenny.
Keith Cronin and Kris Meeke received the most attention during 2009 due to Cronin winning the British Rally Championship (BRC) while Meeke took the honours in the Intercontental Rally Challenge (IRC).
Both are back to defend their titles in 2010 with Cronin winning a free season in the BRC where he will race the Pirelli back Subaru Impreza while Meeke and co driver Paul Nagle have re-signed to Peugeot in the IRC.
Meeke unfortunately crashed out of the Monte Carlo Rally for the second year running, but it has to be remembered that he went onto win the title last season, even after an non finish in last years event.
Cronin has stated that he will contest selected rounds of both the IRC and the Irish Tarmac Rally championship while Meeke will continue to use the IRC with the expressed intention of eventually moving into the world rally championship (WRC) perhaps in 2011.
Ireland is in the process of phasing out the world rally cars that have dominated the rallies here for the past two decades which has now allowed younger drivers to get involved in the sport in their reasonably priced Group N or S2000 cars.
Thus the likes of Cronin, Meeke, Craig Breen, Johnny Greer and Alistair Fisher have been able to mix it with the more established drivers like Gareth McHale who has also expressed his desire to compete in the IRC in 2010 after firstly competing in next month's Galway Rally.
Ireland will also know by April if it's to get a round of the WRC for the third time in 2011 and North One who run the WRC are known to be keen for Rally Ireland to return to the WRC, possibly in September of next year.
Whether there is the political will to do so remains to be seen.
If Ireland is chosen there are also plans afoot to move Rally Ireland away from its base in Sligo in favour of an event closer to Dublin,but it may come down to a bidding war with various areas of the country looking to host the event if it returns next year.
Hosting Rally Ireland is a real must as with the recent decision of the Motorsport Ireland Rallycross committee not to allow a round of the British Rallycross series to come to our shores this year, this country will now have no major international motorsport series here in 2010.
Thankfully, though, the unseemly row between the Rallies Committee and Motorsport Ireland has been resolved allowing the various National championships to go ahead as planned this season
On the track Adam Carroll still has to make the breakthrough into Formula One. Carroll who took Ireland to the A1 series in 2009, failed to get a seat at Virgin Grand Prix this season when his budget fell short, allowing Lucas DiGrassi to outbid the Irishman.
With the A1 series all but finished due to huge financial losses, Carroll still has to get a seat for any championship so far and with only a few empty seats left in F1, his options are narrowing, which suggests that the 28 year old is likely to look towards the USA and a season in their Indy Car championship.
Peter Dempsey is also likely to stay in the US this year. Having narrowly lost out on the Star Mazda Championship, the County Meath driver also missed out on a paid drive in the USA Formula Atlantic series, but he enhanced this reputation in 09 with some outstanding performances and the feeling is that he will be snapped up.
Other Irish drivers to watch out for in 2010 include Gary Thompson who won the Rookie Formula BMW Asia class last year, Patrick McKenna who is looking at Formula Renault and Colin Turkington who will defend his British Touring Car championship he won so spectacularly last season.
Damien Faulkner and Eoin Murray will also be involved in international saloon car championships.
Jordan Grand Prix may be long gone, but there is a new Irish team making their way up the world motorsport ranks, as Status Grand Prix, who ran Team Ireland A1 in 09, have entered the new International GP3 class with a three car team.
Backed by Teddy Yip Jnr and run by David Kennedy, Status have yet to announce their line up and have made no commitment to taking on an Irish driver, with those bringing the biggest budgets likely to get one of the three available seats.
Kennedy, who took a back seat in Status' role in A1, will be a more visible force in GP3 and will more that likely take the role as their team manager for 2010.
Eight rounds have been confirmed for the inaugural 2010 GP3 season, seven of which will support the Formula One World Championship.
The season kicks off in Barcelona with round two in June at Portimao in Portugal, a stand-alone event supporting the GP2 Series. The final six events will then support the remaining Formula One European calendar, resulting in the finale of the championship being held at Monza.
Ten teams including the Irish Status GP team will take part in the new series and three pre-season test days have also been scheduled, first at Paul Ricard in France on the 3rd and 4th of March with the second on the 30th and 31st of that month.
The final GP3 test will be in Barcelona on the 13th and 14th of April.
