First Stages - Saturday Morning and Early Afternoon

Another decent breakfast at the Rivermere and we were off to watch some action.  The roads around Killarney are a real mixed bag - and that's not necessarily obvious from the grading of the road.  It's the surface that's the challenge.  Generally, just assume its going to be very rough, very bumpy, very badly repaired and when you get better than that, its a nice surprise.

The Scooby's very firmly suspended and lowered, but no grounding so far, and the suspension's very well controlled, so no real problem.

After raiding Tescos for sarnies, crisps and drinks for the day ahead, we headed out to Stage 1 and watched at a 90 right just outside a few people's front gardens.  There were some very heavy showers just before the crews came through so the roads were pretty slippery.  McNulty's on rails, Gareth MacHale was a bit more sideways, but, of the top runners, Paul Bird in the Focus is the more spectacular.  The rain stops during the top 20 and by car 40, with the sunshine and breeze, the road is practically dry again.

Gareth MacHale

O'Callaghan

We enjoy the S1600 Clio, BMW compacts, Mk2 Escorts and Breen's S2000 Fiesta.


Stage 3 is next up for us and we find a fast left hander where the road has a large hump at the apex.  This is folllowed by a fast sweeping left where the faster crews cut the corner and spread gravel across the road.  Suprisingly, this doesn't cause problems to those that follow.  But where is Gareth MacHale? No sign of the Focus, so one of the favourites out already.  We also get our first glimpse here of the demonstration run of "famous" rally cars which includes an Opel Manta, Subaru Legacy, Mazda 323, Triumph TR8 and an Hillman Avenger, amongst others. Whilst the viewing here is good, photography is limited by the hawthorn bushes.  The weather continues to provide amusement with a mix here of sunshine, showers and hail.

Aaron MacHale

Dolan

Meade

 Avenger

As we were a bit ahead of time (there's no clues in the programme about when the historics and juniors will run so we'd allowed for watching them but it appears they don't join the rally until Stage 7, Moll's Gap) tonight, we top en route at Bob's mobile catering facility on the N22.  Its the usual fare - burgers, chips, tea etc., but fish too.  So John tucked into fish and chips and I added some chips to my sandwich.  The warm food and hot tea was welcome.

Patersons Reports on Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3 and Stage 5

The Night Before

After a bit of concern over some cancelled ferries on our route from Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire, all seems to be back on track now with technical problems overcome.  The 10:00 express is currently expected to run on time on Thursday.

Motorsport News is running a story about Gareth MacHale's WRC Focus being in MSport's headquarters and now its electrical problems have been solved. Seems a chaffed wire was causing the problem.  Given that Gareth managed second place on the Circuit of Ireland I don't suppose there'll be many betting against him being at the top on Sunday.  Tim McNulty will have his work cut out.

Strangely, we still have windows intact in our house.  This is a bit of a suprise as John must have given the Scoob about 1500 rpm to get up on the drive this evening and the block paving was under threat. Sounds good, I'm sure it'll be even more impressive in the tunnels on the A55 tomorrow.

March 2010 - What's It All Going To Be About Then?

More motorsport.  See the Tour of Mull Blog for 2008 and you'll quickly get the idea of what this one's about.  Rallying, pure and simple.  Proper rallying with proper rally cars with proper enthusiastic crowds.  This time with added craic.
Different set up this time, travelling with my best man, John.  Ferry from Holyhead to Dublin then the longish drive down to Killarney in the South West of the Repulic of Ireland.  So a foreign land with foreign money.  Haven't decided on which car to take yet - it'll either be the Sunbeam Lotus or John's classic Scoob saloon, so either fit well into the role.
We're off to see the Rally of the Lakes 2010.  More later, but in the meantime you can check out the event's website, but there wasn't much 2010 info there at the time this post was posted.

Rally of the Lakes