Officials briefing in Sligo for WRC Rally Ireland 2009

Press Release

15^th November 2008

 

Officials are briefed as Rally Ireland momentum builds

Over 3,000 volunteers to help run Rally Ireland 2009

 

Today the key personnel from Rally Ireland met in Sligo for the Officials Briefing Day in Sligo IT as the build up to Rally Ireland in January begins to gain momentum.

 

Following the recent launch of Rally Ireland 2009 in Sligo the Officials Briefing Day gave those in attendance the chance to be fully briefed on their fellow colleagues’ role within the event and set out the guidelines and procedures that will be in place come the 29^th of January.

 

These procedures span a range of areas of expertise including marshalling, safety and rescue, communications, timekeeping, setting up and running stages and the recruitment of marshals to run the rally.  It is expected that over 2,700 marshals will be used during rally Ireland and they will come from all corners of the country.  In 2007, marshals from the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Finland and the United States all responded to the recruitment call.

 

At Rally Ireland 2009 there will be approximately 3,500 volunteers helping to run what will be Ireland’s biggest sports event in next year.  These volunteers are the un-sung heroes of the event and John Naylor, Event Director for Rally Ireland, outlined the huge role that these people play in the event. 

Today we have many of the top level officials here to be briefed on their roles and they are all volunteers.  But they will go back to their clubs and areas and recruit maybe 200-300 people to volunteer with them.  These people are the heart and soul of the event and they do it simply for the love of rallying and helping Ireland put on a great show for the world.  We couldn’t put the event on without them.”

 

The Training Manager for Rally Ireland 2009 is Rosemary Walsh.  A Sligo native, she was Chief Marshal in 2007when Rally Ireland first became a round of the World Rally Championship and realises how important the Briefing Day is and those people involved. 

These days are vital to the success of Rally Ireland.  To run a successful team it is important that everyone knows each others role and how the whole event comes together.  Aside from this we need a huge amount of people to make this event work and with the help of these people here today we will be able to recruit these people and look to make Rally Ireland bigger and better than 2007.”

 

Rally Ireland 2009 takes place from the 29^th January to the 1^st February travelling through seven counties in the north and south of Ireland.  It is expected that in excess of 250,000 people will attend the event which is replacing Monte Carlo as the first round of the World Rally Championship in 2009.

 

Ends

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

• Rally Ireland 2009 launched at a Press Conference in Sligo today 29th October
• Rally Ireland 09 marshal recruitment drive officially launched today
• Rally Ireland most TV viewers in 2007 WRC
• Rally Ireland 2009 will not start with a Super Special Stage at Stormont but at another location somewhere in Northern Ireland
• Stormont will launch the 2009 WRC the weekend before Rally Ireland