A SUPERCAR PARADE is attempting to break a Guinness World Record this weekend in a three-day road trip around Ireland.
Now in its 10th year, the Cannonball road trip takes place once a year and features sports and exotic “supercars”.
The road trip, which sees 190 cars taking part, kicked off at 10am yesterday morning from Malahide Castle.
Cars such as McLaren, Ferrari, Aston Marin, Porsche and Rolls Royce will trail through Dublin, Cavan, Donegal, Mayo, Spanish Point, Blarney, Cork and Kilkenny before reaching the finish line in Wexford Town at 6.30pm tomorrow.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie about the event, Cannonball founder Alan Bannon recalled that 137 cars took part in the event’s first year back in 2009.
“That was quite a challenge and every year it has grown a little bit,” he said.
Drivers from around the world take part in the event, Bannon said, with about 40% of entries coming from outside Ireland.
Speaking of how the event has grown through the years and the challenges that have come along with it, he said: “It’s like any business that you run, it takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of minding and it takes a lot of energy to keep it going.
“We’ve a very good team around us and we rely a lot on volunteers. Without the support of them, the gardaí and the councils it wouldn’t happen.”
World record
Now that the event is in its 10th year, Bannon said they wanted “something a little bit different” this year.
The organisers have announced that they have applied to set a new Guinness World Record for the largest moving parade of supercars on a coastline.
“It’s a bit of a challenge to try and set a [world record] so we’ve a couple of things we’re working on at the moment to try make it happen,” Bannon said.
“We’re determined. We’ll go and hopefully, we’ll set and record and hopefully it’ll last a while.”
The organisers expect up to 190,000 people to line the streets around Ireland to watch the cars drive by.
“The big thing for us is along the way on the day you see people parked up in small towns and villages waving at the cars. Even out on country roads parked up on laybys out to see the cars,” Bannon said.
“It’s a free event for the public. We encourage it and we love to see kids coming out, getting in the cars, getting photographs of their favourite cars and just being part of the atmosphere,” he said.
Cannonball is this year raising money for the ISPCC’s Childline service, which answered more than 381,000 calls, text and online messages last year.
More information about the event and this year’s route can be found here.
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