The Cork City Rally Sprint was run for the second time in the grounds of the old Cork city landfill site on the Kinsale Road. The event which took motorsport into the city was attended by over 2000 spectators. The track consisted of a  2.4km mixed surface track which was 80% gravel, but competitors were only allowed to used Tarmac tyres L.

We were seeded number 8 on the road with 60 crews competing. Having made pacenotes on our mountain bikes the previous day we were set for the days action ahead. Weather conditions were excellent, with the good dry weather. On the first run it was a case of identifying how much grip my car would have driving on tarmac tyres on gravel. As expected I didn’t have quite the turn in I was used to on the gravel tyres.

We had a steady run over first two runs and were lying 6^th overall, happy being in the top 3 of the 2 wheel drive competitors. On the third run with ¾ of the lap complete I turned into a 90 degree left hander not knowing I had picked up a front right puncture, this resulted...

The 2011 Valvoline Forest Rally Championship kicked off last weekend with the Sean Conlon Forestry rally. It was our first event of the 2011 season. The rally was hosted by Tipperary M.C. and based in Mitchelstown, Co.Cork. The six stage event consisted of a 66km route with three stages repeated.  

The first stage took us to the 10.7 km Cumbaun wood stage, we opened our account with 21^th fastest time overall and 5^th fastest in the highly competitive class 3, stopping the clocks at a time of 10:58,  5 seconds behind Alistair Fisher in his Fiesta R2. With a steady run through stages two and three we left service at half way point in 20th position overall.  On stage four a broken gear lever slowed our progress and worse was to come on stage five. Arriving at a square right the car was unable to turn in due to a broken ball joint, luckily this failed in first gear! This failure caused us to retire from the event.

Hopefully our luck will change for the next event!

See clip of car in action @ 25sec http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHyyXeFu3V4

Incar Video of Cambaun Stage 1  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aeND4qikTI

We had a steady run over the weekend to net 10th overall and 2nd two wheel drive. Only intercom problems slowed our progress in stage 3. After the gearbox issues on the previous event in carrick it was great to finish this event. Roll on Cork Forestry in August. Watch stage 4 the famous "Vee" from roof cam on the escort by clicking on link below, enjoy.

Having not competed since 2006 in New Zealand, I was a bit apprehensive starting Carrick forestry rally. After the first two stages I was happy with my reintroduction to the Irish forest stages and my new navigator Catherine Levis. Results after stage two show us 11th overall, but it all started to go wrong when the gear lever came off in my hand on stage 3, a quick fix in service provided us with a run over stage 4 the lovely Anner stage, but unfortunately we had to retire after Anner due to an excessive oil leak from the gearbox. Hopefully in the next rally we will see the finish line!