Turkey Run 2016

The dead zone between Christmas and New Year is a strange time of year so I was very pleased when my good friend Robert Erwin asked me to navigate for him on the Turkey Run stage rally, up at the old Shacklton army barracks at Ballykelly. I have only navigated on one rally before, and I wasn't very good at it, so I told him as long as he could memorise the stage and didn't actually need to rely on me calling him the correct notes then I was up for helping him out.

I was really looking forward to navigating for Robert as he and his father have recently finished the build of a very exciting wee rally car. They have installed a 2.0 Honda K20 engine and Quaife sequential gearbox into a Toyota MR2 Roadster. It's a great going rally car and when Robert gets more comfortable with the mid engine handling characteristics I have no doubt they will put in some great stage times. The car is right at the start of its development and I look forward to watching it get faster and faster out on the stage.

The Erwins were treating the Turkey Run as a test day so it took a lot of the pressure off me. The first 3 stages went well with use getting quicker on each run, but then we had an engine issue which gave us a couple of bad stage times. The problem was eventually traced to a broken spark plug. The rally was running late so the final stage took place in darkness. We didn't have a lamp pod so were driving almost blind, black round bale chicanes are almost impossible to see at rally speed, but we survived and had a good days rallying.

Video of us on stage 3:

And a crazy quick video of our friends Steve Smith and Ashley Boulton on stage 4:

Results:
http://www.rallyscore.net/408/Turkey-Run-2016

Thanks to Ian Geddes for the action photos:
https://www.facebook.com/IanGeddesPhotography/

Moneyglass Rally

I'd heard about the Alltrak/Rallysport rally events but I hadn't taken the time to go and find out what the craic is with them. So when my wee brother Niall and my cousin Con said they were going to do the rally on Saturday 15th September I went down for a look.

Con had bought a tidy but unfinished Corolla Coupe rally car and also a rough Corolla rally car that he was going to use for parts. But when they got it home the rough car was actually that bad so they wanted to take it out for a run without having to worry about it getting a wee knock. Alltrak is the perfect place for that as the can do a dual entry, it's close to home, and it's much cheaper than a stage rally.

By the time I got down the boys had been out for a run each and were full of stories after they both had crashed and damaged the car. Con was out first and had a big slide, hitting a bale with the passengers door and then Niall had hit a different bale with the front of the car and bent the bonnet. But that wasn't what they were fixing when got there. I car hadn't been used for a while and probably due to that the a union on the  rear brakes has started leaking. They tried to fix it and went to get some spare parts but couldn't quite get it repaired. The only option left was to blank off the rear brakes completely. I don't think losing the rear brakes is that big a deal, just need to be a bit more careful on big stops (not that I would really know, I'm just guessing).

From chatting to the boys it didn't really sound like they had leaner anything from their previous crashes so I knew full well that the car wasn't going to finish the day in one piece, and so it proved. The boys both managed to get another clean run each before Con hit the same bale he had side swipped on his first run but this time he did a proper job of it and went in very heavy, head first, destroying the whole front of the car. Both driver and navigator were unhurt which is the main thing.

I'm in two minds with the Rallysport Association events. They fill an important gap in the market that for some reason the MSA don't seem interested in filling. I think it was 6 stages for £75 which is hugely cheaper than proper stage rally and they allow dual entries which halfs the cost of getting a car ready. But coming from MSA events the safety does seem to be a little bit lacking. They seem to start cars at only about 10 second intervals which I would be very worried about. Also the cars don't have plumbed in extinguishers and to compound that they don't require fireproof overalls for the crews. Having said all that I was only there a few hours and I wasn't actually taking part so the things I didn't like might be different at tracks/events. I plan do try a few out next year when I get the Nova built up a bit more but I will be wearing a proper FIA approved rally suit and I will have a plumbed in extinguisher.

Rallysport Association
Results

Ulster Rally 2012

The Ulster Rally rolled around again and as has become tradition we help Paddy McCollum out by doing a passage control on the Saturday, 18th August. It's always an early start but as the weather was to be good we didn't really mind. Marshaling is a much more pleasant experience in the sunshine and it was nice to spend almost the only good of summer outside. Although Rachel did get badly sunburned even though she has suncream on.



Craig Breen had the new 208 R2 out for it's first rally appearance but it was only as a 00 car. The car looked really well and I noticed that it had a wee wooden insert in the handbrake lever which is a pretty nice touch. All the drivers were suffering in the heat and were just a sweaty mess by the time they got to us, they must have been working hard.

My friend Robert Erwin was out in his 1600 RWD Corolla and set some great times though he had some problems that dropped him down the final standings.

 

Lurgan Park Rally 2012

I love Lurgan Park Rally, and not only because it is only a few minutes from my house. It's a pretty perfect set up for a good days spectating. They get a good quality of cars and drivers, there are tarmac and loose sections, I can watch every stage from a different corner, I can get a good look around the service park and there is a display area so I can see some shiny cars too. Rachel and I headed over fairly early on Saturday the 28th July as we like to get parked handy and see all the stages. Kris Meeke was going to be there along with 3 WRC MINI's so we were expecting a big crowd and it looked like the weather was going to be good. We aren't new to spectating so even though we put on our sun cream, we took our coats with us too. It's a good thing we did as the weather changed from bright sunshine to heavy rain every 10 minutes or so.

As soon as we went in we were greeted  by two lovely old Opels/Vauxhalls. The Manta is a stunning bit or work, and the Viva had been well looked after too. I think I could see myself buying a Viva sometime, every 6 months or so I look them up on the internet to see if I can afford a nice one, but I cant. I bet by the time I get round to seriously looking for one their price will have skyrocketed out of my reach.

As we were early we went straight over to service to see the sights. There was plenty of interesting machines on display. Here is a selection of what caught my eye. First up was this Hillman Avenger with its period service barge. Then Stuart Biggerstaffs Metro 6R4, followed by the tail of two MINI's, these two belong to Derek McGeehan. Then I tried to fit 5 Impreza WRC's into one photo but its a bit more like 3 and two halfs, but still 5 Subaru WRC's in a row is very impressive for a single venue/exhibition rally. Another very nice Subaru is Garry Jennings Group A example. It's great to see that car out on the stages. Garry drives it very sideways and the noise brings back great memories. Then a quick snap of the engine bay of Derek McGarritys MINI, those cars are beautifully built, a work of art. And to finish off a couple of older machines, a Renault 5 Turbo and a MG Midget.

 

 





I tried to get a photo of Kris Meeke but my photography skills let me down. This is the best I could do, poor effort.





We went in to the forest to watch the first stage, it's pretty nice in there. My second attempt to get a photo of Meeke was even worse than the first, or maybe he is just too fast to get a photo off.



I didn't take many more action shots as I'm not very good at it and I prefer to just watch the rally. I did think this one was worth putting in as it had 2 MINI's in it.

This was also a pretty special rally as it was my nephew Daniel Mullan's first ever rally, he seemed to enjoy it pretty well.

RallyScore.net Results

QUB Summer Lanes Rally 2012

Saturday the 21st July was the Queens University of Belfast Motor Clubs Summer Lanes Rally. QUBMC is our club so we were involved with the organisation in the build up to the event, so by the day of the rally it's a big relief that it's the end of the stress and the work. This year we had 3 student members (Conor Auld, James Scott and Philip Campbell) in charge and as none of them have competed on any motorsport event they had a bit of a mountain to climb. Luckily Conors father Clifford Auld was able to step in and be an experienced voice to guide them through. Together they managed to secure some new lanes for this years and they did a great job. The event ran great and everyone seemed to really enjoy the rally. It's probably the best that the rally has ever run. The same team have more ideas they want to try out and are keen to take on the organising of the event again next year which is brilliant news.

As I compete in the event my involvement in the organisation has to be limited to non-test stuff and so this year I made up some new code boards. We have used the same code boards every year, they are simply car number plates with a 3 letters followed by 3 numbers format. I felt that they are too short and didn't slow the cars down enough so the new code boards are 4 letters and 4 numbers. To allow the boards to be use for many years to come I build them with 96 individual, quick change code plates with 2 digits on each. This will allow us a huge number of code combinations and it will make it easy to change the code between cars if we want to.

We had a good clean run through all the tests with only a single penalty (for grazing a pylon) so we were really happy. I think the few autotests I have done in the car have produced a great improved in my speed on the technical sections. I am much more confident maneuvering the car on the handbrake than I was before and I can place the car much better. My new ecowing Kumho tyres proved to be dead on too, I didn't notice any reduction in grip over the quatrac's that I had on before. We finished up 17th overall which I am happy with. I know there are a few things that I could change on the car to gain a few seconds and I still haven't got much confidence on the loose. On the whole everyone ahead of us is much more experienced than we are and they have cars build for this kind of event, but hopefully we will be able to catch up with them someday.

1st Overall, Pete Moore and Will Corry Jnr, with CoC Philip Campbell.  

Results:
RallyScore

Photos:
Peespeed Photography

MOT & Insurance Time Again

I haven't been getting up to much motorsporting of late so things have been a bit quiet round here. After 6 months of looking Rachel and I have finally been able to find a house that we like and has space for our lives. Unfortunately it needs a fair amount of renovation so it has been sucking up all my time for the last few months and it will continue to do so for at least a few months more.

But no matter how much other work I have on I still like the keep the Nova road legal. So first job up was to renew the road insurance. My policy was with REIS and, although I've never had to put a claim in against it, they have always been easy to deal with so I saw no reason to change. The renewal quote was £302 but as I plan on doing a good few events during the year I got them to add on on event road section cover which bumped it up to £365. I have previously been buying insurance at each event, which is £18.50 a time, so if I compete in 4 events this year I will have made an overall saving on last year, and every event after that is a bonus.

So with the easy job done the next one is to get a new MOT. I know the Nova is generally solid so the MOT doesn't hold much fear foe me, and if there is play in the suspension parts I would rather change them anyway rather than have something fail during an event. I am lucky enough that Mark next door is a Vauxhall mechanic, he took a look over her and said all was well except my front tyres are done and the sump gasket is weeping, easy peasey.

I picked up a sump gasket, 5L of 5W40, and an oil filter in Fyfes and delivered them to Mark to fit. I could do the work myself but as I said the house is taking up all my time and Mark isn't too hard to pay. Unfortunatly the 1600 Nova engine needs two sump gaskets, one above and one below the baffle plate, so only half the job was done the first night. I rang Fyfes the next day to get another gasket and the first thing the fella on the phone asks is did I know that engine requires two gaskets! Why hadn't I been talking to him the day before and I could have got the work done in one go rather than having to push the car between garages with no sump attached and dripping oil everywhere!

So with that sorted I just had some new tyres to buy. I had been running a pair of Vredestein Quatrac 3's and I had been pleased with them but I had done a few autotests with them and pretty much destroyed them. I only managed to get 974 miles out of them which is pretty shocking but I suppose that is to be expected when I turned so much of the tread depth into smoke. I had heard good things about the Yokohama A021-R's and all the southern autotesters are using them but when I priced them they were €130 each which is just too much to spend on tyres when I have new house stuff to buy. As I don't seem to get much mileage out of my tyres anyway I just took the easiest option and bought the cheapest Kumho's that Modern Tyres had, which turned out to be ecowing KH19's. An eco tyre on a rally car is a strange thing but sure we will see how it goes, no more autotesting though.

Insurance: £365
Gaskets: £7.96 each, £15.92 total
Oil filter: £3.40
5W40: £25.60
Labour: £65
Kumho ecowing KH19: £45 each, £90 total
MOT fee: £30.50
REIS Motorsport Insurance Specialists
Fyfes Motor Factor
Modern Tyres
Kumho Tyre ecowing KH19

Killarney, Rally of the Lakes 2012

Last weekend Rachel and I went down to spectate at the Killarney international rally. Killarney is one of my favourite rally weekends of the year as unlike the Circuit and the Ulster rallies we don't have jobs to do, and unlike Donegal the socialising is centred around eating rather than drinking.

We were joined this year by the usual crew of Richard and Karen Swanston, Phil and Ali Ford-Hutchinson, and for his first time at this rally James Scott. Luckily there was only the 7 of us because that allowed us all to fit into Richard's Disco and we would only need to take one car out to the stages. Using the Disco has the added advantage that Richard likes to try and make getting to the stages as much of an adventure as he can so if there is a white road on the map then that is the road we will be taking. With that in mind on Saturday we found ourselves heading towards a junction on stage 5 that only met the Ballaghbeama stage with a dotted line! As expected we soon ran out of road and had to walk the last 500m but it was a spectacular spot to watch the rally.

On Sunday we took what was supposed to be the safe option and went to a more usual spectator junction. However it didn't go as expected and we got the big Disco stuck just off the road. All her trick diff's and off road tyres couldn't pull her out so we had the shame of being pulled out by an Isuzu Trooper.

When we came back to the car after the stage we had been blocked in by 5 late comers so we were stuck there for an hour, which messed up out plans to get to some of the other stages. We then had loads of time to get down to see the Cods Head stage so we look the white road over the mountain past the old copper mine. It is a pretty spectacular road, which I have no photos off.

All in all it was a great weekends craic with the gang. My favourite car had to be Roy Whites Ford engined MG S2000. It sounds amazing and with the wide arches looks like a proper rally car. I didn't get a photo of it though so I'm a bit rubbish really. Roy was very quick but it looked to me like the car wasn't handling very well. On Ardgroom he had loads of understeer and then an the straight on Cods Head the car seemed to be bucking about all over the place, a complete animal. When he gets her sorted it will be an amazingly quick rally car.

http://www.rallyofthelakes.com/


On Friday we left Magheralin at 3:30pm and arrived in Kenmare at about 11pm having gone via Cork and stopped in Portlaoise for dinner. Driving time was 5h 45 and was 300miles. On the way home on Monday we left Kenmare at 11am and went across to Mitchelstown and then up the motorway, driving time was about 5 hours. Less traffic was what allowed the quicker time.