Circuit Of Ireland Rally Called Off

The 2013 Circuit of Ireland Rally, one of the biggest motoring events in Ireland, has been called off due to insufficient funding.

Rally director Bobby Willis said the decision to cancel the event had been difficult, but that he was no longer willing to "play Russian roulette" with his own money.

"This is an extremely painful judgment for me to make and one that I do not enter into lightly," he said.

The news follows Mr Willis’s concerns in October over funding for next year’s Rally.

"We have received significant backing from Government, but we were falling short of our full funding requirements and given the delay this has imposed it is now impossible to organise an international sporting event in less than three months," he said.

The event had been provisionally named in the 2013 FIA European Rally Championship calendar.

Mr Willis added: "Over the last three years I have invested my own money and resources into getting the rally up and running in the hope that funding would materialise before the event.

"I am no longer willing to play Russian roulette with my own finances in order to safeguard a rally that has worldwide appeal, even though it is so close to my heart."

(IT)