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Wednesday, 17th October 2007

90 crews are due to start the inaugural Rally Ireland next month - with over a third in WRC cars.

The organisers of the Rally Ireland have announced that 90 crews will start their event next month, the 15th round in the 2007 FIA World Rally Championship.

All the manufacturer teams will attend the event - with the exception of the Munchi's Ford World Rally Team.

In total 34 WRC cars are entered, more than a third of the entry, with Britain's Guy Wilks and Kris Meeke both included in Subaru Impreza WRC cars, while four-time Irish Tarmac Rally champion, Eugene Donnelly will compete in a Skoda Fabia WRC.

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Francois Duval is listed in a Citroen Xsara WRC car - although not entered under the 'OMV Kronos Citroen WRT' banner as this was not one of the ten events the Belgian-based outfit nominated to run a second car on at the start of the year.

In the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship [PWRC] category there will be 16 drivers' eligible to score points, including Mark Higgins, Stuart Jones, Niall McShea and 2007 Mitsubishi Evo Challenge winner, Phillip Morrow.

A number of the PWRC regulars have not nominated this event - most noticeably Toshihiro Arai, #31, Loris Baldacci, #33, Juho Hanninen, #36, Fabio Frisiero, #44 and Martin Rauam, #51.

Of the rest, another 25 or so will be entered in the Group N category - including Martin Prokop, who finished third in this year's JRC and who won the final JRC event in Corsica last weekend.

The only female driver taking part is Emma McKinstry - daughter of Irish rally legend Kenny McKinstry. Emma competed on the 2006 Rally Ireland candidate event and is a regular on national and International rallies.

In total 21 countries are represented on the Rally Ireland entry list, with competitors coming from as far as Qatar, Japan and the USA, and an impressive entry of 53 competitors from the island of Ireland itself.

The full entry list is as follows:

1. Sebastien Loeb Citroen Total WRT C4 WRC M
2. Daniel Sordo Citroen Total WRT C4 WRC M
3. Marcus Gronholm BP Ford Focus RS WRC 07 M
4. Mikko Hirvonen BP Ford Focus RS WRC 07 M
5. Manfred Stohl OMV Kronos Citroen Xsara WRC M
7. Petter Solberg Subaru WRT Impreza WRC 2006 M
8. Chris Atkinson Subaru WRT Impreza WRC 2006 M
9. Jari-Matti Latvala Stobart Ford Focus WRC 06 M
10. Henning Solberg Stobart Ford Focus WRC 06 M

11. Xavier Pons Subaru WRT Impreza WRC 2006 A8
12. Francois Duval Citroen Xsara WRC A8
14. Khalid Al-Qassimi BP Ford Focus RS WRC 06 A8
16. Matthew Wilson Stobart Ford Focus WRC 06 A8
17. Guy Wilks Subaru Impreza A8
18. Kris Meeke Subaru Impreza A8
19. Gareth MacHale Ford Focus RS WRC A8
20. Andreas Mikkelsen Ramsport Ford Focus RS WRC A8
21. Eugene Donnelly Reid Motorsport Skoda Fabia WRC A8
22. Eamonn Boland Stobart Ford Focus WRC 06 A8
23. Andrew Nesbitt Subaru Impreza A8
24. Austin MacHale Ford Focus WRC A8
25. Aaron MacHale Ford Focus WRC A8
26. Tim McNulty Subaru Impreza S11 A8
27. Gareth Jones Stobart Ford Focus WRC 04 A8
28. Ray Breen Stobart Ford Focus WRC 04 A8
29. Kevin Barrett Subaru Impreza S11 A8

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