It was indeed fitting that it was a Cork Motor Club member, one Billy Coleman, who was presented with the trophy before the Monday start from Killarney. It was proud moment for all concerned - Cork Motor Club had arrived. The first Annual General Meeting of Cork Motor Club took place in 1976. A board of directors was elected and included Dick O'Brien, Chairman, Declan Mullally, Brian Mattsson, Michael 'Bones' O'Connor, Chris O'Mahony, Dick O'Rourke, Dave Bogan (RIP) and Billy Ryan. Almost immediately plans were set in train for the running of Cork Motor Club's first major event, the West Cork Rally. An organising committee was set up under the direction of Clerk of the Course, Declan Mullally, to whom the job presented nothing new, Declan having run the "Cork 20" for the previous few years. Declan was ably assisted by 'Bones' O'Connor (Assistant COC), who had clerked the Moonraker Rally since 1975; Dick O'Brien, another former "Cork 20" Clerk of the Course; Dick O'Rourke, Clerk of the Course of the 1976 Circuit of Munster Rally and Dermot Locke, who was described at the time as the next best thing to a computer as far as results were concerned.
The 1977 West Cork Rally was the competition beginning of what we feel is Ireland's best motor club