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.

Festival of Speed, Maze Long Kesh, 2012

Rachel and I went down to the Festival of Speed NI at the Maze on Saturday (28 Apr 2012) to try and promote Night Navigation rallying. It was a last minute thing so we went that well prepared but we had some flyers and Clifford Auld made up a curiosity board with lots of navigation equipment. It seemed to do the trick as it brought a good number of people over to talk to us and they were polite enough to listen to our sales pitch.



I didn't get much of a look around but this Chevette was parked near to us and I think it looks brilliant.



http://www.festivalofspeedni.com/

Wee Con's Corolla Rally Car

My cousin Con Carey has bought himself a 20v Toyota Corolla AE86 rally car. It hasn't been log booked yet so still needs some work to finish it off but the work that has been done looks good and the shell seems straight and solid so it should be a real good wee car when they are finished working on it. It came with a blown engine but a replacement has already been sourced so it shouldn't be too long before its out on the stages.



Hovercrafting!

The day after the Springfling I found myself changing from 4 wheels to no wheels! My sister had bought my brother, my brother-in-law and myself a session on the hovercrafts down at ODD.ie in Co. Cavan for Christmas. Driving a hovercraft is a pretty weird experience, you aren't really in control of it at all. You just hold the throttle full open and use your body weight, more than the steering, to "guide" you in the right direction. For me the best bit was the transition from land to water, it was totally seamless, I couldn't feel any difference at all, it was very impressive. At the end of our timed runs I came out the fastest over the lap but it was very close between everyone, it was definitely good luck rather than good judgement that had me the quickest.

I really enjoyed the hovercrafting experience but I don't think I would like to have paid the full €85 that our session would usually have cost, luckily we had some discount vouchers.

http://www.odd.ie/



Springfling Rally 2012

Rachel and I took part in the Springfling Rally on the 21st April and it was bloody brilliant, I think it was probably the best Lanes Rally yet. It was well organised, the test were great and there was very little queuing, I couldn't ask for anything more.

We finished up 18th out of the 36 starters so I was happy enough with that. We got a 30 second penalty for not stopping astride the line on Test 4, I was only a couple of inches over but over the line is over the line. That was the only mistake we made all day so I can't complain. Most of the crews that beat us are out more often or have more developed cars so I think our finishing position was about right. I don't have the experience yet to be able to push on the loose tests but I hope that will come.

As usual the Nova ran perfectly all day and never gave me any bother. Our friends Neil Anderson and Kerry Moreland was out in Andy Hughes 306 GTI and they had lots of trouble with a holed radiator and didn't make it back out again for the tests after lunch. I drive the Nova to all the events so being able to drive it home again is the most important thing to me. I've been thinking about buying a Clio 182 but the Novas reliability is more crucial than the extra horsepower, I never find myself short on power anyway, it is always a lack of traction that holds me back. Better to stick with what I know and trust, for the time being anyway.

I have videos from most of the tests so I will get them uploaded sometime in the future.

Results

Costs:
£60 Entry fee
£18 Insurance
£10 each for club membership
£30 Petrol
Total £128.