Stormont car rally hits the skids

France's Sebastien Loeb and co-driver Daniel Elena won this year's title

The launch of the 2009 World Rally Championship will no longer take place at Stormont, it has emerged.

The event, which would have been broadcast around the world, was to take place on 24 January.

Rally Ireland said the event had been cancelled because not all of the manufacturers involved in the championship were "on board".

DUP assembly member Ian Paisley Jnr said it was a "huge loss to Northern Ireland".

"It's unfortunate whatever has got in the way of this, and it appears to have been internal wrangling within World Rally and indeed a bid to take it somewhere else, that Northern Ireland is prevented from benefitting from another spectacular event at Stormont."