Joe's Fotothing

Festival of motor sport for Piltown
The Carrick-on-Suir Motor Club organised a Festival of Motor which was held at Belline Estate, Piltown, Co. Kilkenny. The event was held last weekend, to mark the clubs Golden Jubilee. The main aim of the festival was to raise as much funding as possible for two most worthy hospitals, namely The National Rehabilitation Hospital (formerly Dunlaoighre Rehabilitation Centre) and The Children’s Medical & Research Foundation (formerly Crumlin Children’s Hospital).
Tickets were on sale for a Raffle with first prize a Nissan Car, other great prizes include a Holiday Voucher worth €1,500, A day testing with a world rally car driver, free entry to this years Ravens Rock Rally and A day at rally connection rally school. Among the biggest attractions: was a Rally Car Experience featuring James Foley Rallysport with full works team. Rides attracted a lot of people, rides to be priced @ €30 per ride which consisted of 3 laps around a specially designed rally stage or €50 for 6 laps. There was also an impressive driver line up with Eugene Donnelly, Colm Murphy, Barry McGuiggan former World Champion Boxer, plus other drivers Paul Kiely, James Cassidy, Gabriel Martin, Michael Murray and of course James Foley himself.
Austin McHale and his sons Gareth and Aaron Ford Focus WRCs were on display
Rosemary Smith who is the most successful Lady Rally Driver ever in Ireland attended the festival on both days and brought her original Hillman Imp.
Helicopter rides were kindly supported by eirecopter.ie and a Tractor Pulling Display (As seen on TV)
Red Bull also support the event on both days by providing the following,
- Red Bull Dodge Truck (event, games & music)
- Event Tables
- Parasols
- Freebies
The Festival also had a Ferrari F1 car on display in the main arena and Gareth Lloyd of West Wales Rally Spares attended with his beautiful and Original Ex Works Roger Clarke RS 1800 Mark 11 Escort.
Also In the main arena were Joey and Robert Dunlop’s Road Racing Bikes
World Rally Team Ireland attended the show, they are now in joint second position in the Junior World Championship. Fresh from there 4th place finish in Rally Italy which was in fact a great result considering the conditions both crew and car had to endure over the 3 days, Shaun Gallagher (driver) himself also attended.
All disciplines of motor sport were represented in a static show, Including Rally, Race, Auto test, Autocross, Rally cross, Karting, Hill climb, Hot Rod and drift cars. Other displays that attended were Motorcycles, Vintage Cars, Vintage Tractors, and Machinery & Stationary Engines. The club had a minimum of 1,000 vehicles on display over the weekend on 70 acres of land