In a challenge equivalent to a first time climb of a vertical face, the media duo of Tony Jardine and Maurice Hamilton will not only attempt the mighty Donegal International Rally for the first time, but they will make their debuts in the equivalent of a rocket ship - a full World Rally spec-car.
The Jardine / Hamilton combination will also benefit from another Anglo-Irish alliance on the rally, this time in the form of their Northern Irish VSM Motorsport team and York-based ProSpeedMotorsport, run by Olly Marshall.
Richard Hogg has bravely agreed to loan his Skoda Octavia WRC to the ‘apprentice climbers' with support from his Mascott Construction and LGC precision engineering concerns. The team will be supplied with rally tyres by Kumho.
The Topaz Donegal International Rally is the jewel in the crown of Irish rallying, and has a reputation for being one of the country's most challenging rallies. So much so that four-time World Rally champion Sébastien Loeb competed in the event last year to familiarise himself with Irish rallying prior to Ireland's first ever round of the World Rally Championship.
Jardine was due to compete in Rally Ireland 2007, which would have been his first event in the Emerald Isle, but he had to make a dramatic dash back to the UK after his wife was seriously injured as a pedestrian caught up in a road accident. She has now happily recovered.
Now Jardine and co-driver Hamilton will make their Irish debuts after accepting the challenge to follow in Loeb's tyre tracks, set by the Donegal International team, including organiser Damion Crawford and clerk of the course Danny Gormley.
To add to the challenge, it will be the first time either of the duo will have competed in a WRC car. The rally car, a Skoda Octavia Evolution Three, was originally built by ProSpeed Motorsport and is currently prepared and run by VSM Motorsport.
