Quality Hotels West Cork Rally 2013
John returned to the closed roads of West Cork for another crack at this fabulous event.
Co-Driven again on this most demanding of events by local man Alistair Wyllie, John hoped to improve on his 5th Overall finish from last year, but with a top 10 littered with some of the very best WRC machinery in Ireland that was going to be a real challenge. Debuting his newly acquired Fiesta WRC local man and defending champion Daragh O’Riordan headed the field in a much changed format from previous years.
To help with costs for competitors the organisers planned 12 stages over the two days in a compact route of 3 stages repeated twice each day with just one service in between. This meant the event was able to start at 1.00 PM on the Saturday and 10.30 AM on the Sunday meaning crews could travel to and from the event staying for just one night. Despite the recession 143 crews assembled to tackle the grueling 120 miles of stages and minimum road miles, including some of the famous and classic roads in and around Clonakility.
John had some gearbox work done before the event changing the setup and settings of the diffs so the first day was anticipated to be experimental in finding out if the changes had the anticipated effect to the cars handling.
An intercom problem on the first stage slowed the duo but with one of the favorites going off and blocking the stage John had to stop and was awarded with a notional time which was a fortunate given the problems. A swapping of helmets for the next couple of stages meant John could hear Alistair calling the notes but the discomfort didn’t help the cause. The crew found themselves in the bottom half of the top 10 by the time they arrived at first service where Alistair was able to sort his helmet problem out.
The second run through this loop of stages saw the pace of the front runners step up and some fierce competition in and around John was taking place. Non the less by the end of the day John was in a creditable 10th Overall with no dramas to report and the gearbox behaving.
Day two was again clear and dry - but once again very cold as the duo set off chasing down the crews in front.
No further dramas occurred, although friends were concerned when no stage time for SS10 was posted on the results, yet John was still running and no problems were reported. With a big gap behind and little chance of catching the crew in front John settled for a good result, which found them finishing the event comfortably inside the top ten as a result of a couple of crews dropping out in the later stages. That included long time rally leader Dennis Cronin who went off on the last stage whilst in the lead handing the win to Brian O’Mahony and John Higgins in their Kenny McKinstry run Subaru S14B WRC
8th Overall and 2nd in Class !!!
Full information and results can be found at www.westcorkrally.com
Grateful thanks once again to Geoprep - Dean George's excellent motorsport company, Andy Freeman Winy, Peeky and TC .
