Tipperary forestry rally 23 review

Well after 2 failed attempts to get some gravel rallying done we finally headed for Cahir on 15th may. The initial impression of the stages were that they were rough but in fairness, they ended up being challenging but reasonable. In fact the changing surface and odd bump made for some fantastic excitement in the car. It was however a rally where experience was key and that became clear as many or our j1000 competitors, along with plenty more experienced crews came unstuck.

Patrick (nav) and I started off on older tyres thinking we would finish them off while we got used to each other at a somewhat reasonable pace. This was to be a mistake. We gave away lumps of time to the leaders in 11f on stage one before waking up on stage two. Taking caution in the scrapyard that was the last few kms of stage 3 cost time also but we had been laughing hysterically on and off the stages all day so we didn’t mind. Having put a newer pair of kumho on the front for the second loop we got down to business and the car was transformed. “bitsy” the civic was right at home on the fast narrow slippy stage 4, until just before the halfway mark. It was here we caught another car and he held us all the way to the finish board. We lost over 30s at that point and with it, any realistic chance of putting the second place crew under any meaningful amount of pressure.

Pic: courtesy of Sheals photography

Having gathered ourselves we spoke of the fact we were third at this point. Mike Feeney in second was 34sec up the road and we knew we wouldn’t overhaul him without him having problems so we set about tidying up our driving and trying to go fast but clean. It seemed to work as we put in 2 times which were within 2 secs of the 2 crews in Front.

Pic: ciandon

Wrapping up I must say though we were delighted to be getting closer to the pace we need to have the huge take away was that all this was done among a group of good friends before during and after the event. It would be impossible without time and effort from everyone I call friend. I really learned this weekend that this sport began for fun. Some people in and out of cars forget that fact but we won’t be from here on in. Spanner time now. Moonraker won’t be long coming.

Over and out.

Ian.

Special thanks to https://www.picycles.ie/ and https://www.odonovaneng.ie/ for their help.