The Weather forecast was for it to be cloudy and mid twenties but as all weather forecasts go they were wrong, the temperature peaked at an incredible 36 degrees with no clouds to be seen. There we both were sitting in a rally car with no Air conditioning, no windows to wind down and both wearing helmets and three layer fireproof overalls, consuming around 5 litres of high energy fluids per hour or every 2^nd stage. 

Since Gerry and I had not competed in a proper pacenote style event for over 8 Months our plan for this Rally was a simple one, keep the car in one piece and go for a finish with the right foot firmly to the floor. Seeded at number 101 out of a massive entry of 208 we were fairly happy with the position we would start the Rally from.

The route for the day consisted on 3 loops of the stages with a main service after stage 2 and 5.A total of 85 Stage miles and 65 road miles between stages.

Whilst travelling the 12 road miles from the Sligo park Hotel headquarters to the start of stage 1 we discussed that we would be cautious on the 1^st two stages and re asses our position at main service then decide how much we needed to up the pace. 

Stage 1 was a mixture of very smooth tarmac with long straights and very narrow tight and twisty sections with grass growing up the middle of the road, the pacenotes I was reading to Gerry were very precise and also very very quick due to the speeds were were doing, the only issues we had on this stage was bedding in the new Mintex 1155 racing pads, which we had thought were already done at a test day a few weeks previous but the racing temperature they were getting to and the brake fade meant we lost the brakes a few times on the long 12 mile stage,loosing vital seconds.

Counting the amount of cars that had crashed out on stage 1 made us feel at ease knowing that we were driving cautiously on the 1^st stage. 

Stage 2 was again a mixture of surfaces and with the temperatures rising to nearly 30 degrees we still had to be on the ball as a couple of faster, more powerful cars had caught us on the stage and passed until Gerry caught sight of a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 in his rear view mirror he lost concentration for a slit second and ran wide up an embankment and through some bushes.managing to keep the power down on the Corsa he carried on through the undergrowth and back onto the track, we did expect some major damage to the passenger side of the car but on arrival at service we found only a loose bumper and misaligned headlamp!! Not even a scratch.

Service time was tight with an allowance of 25 mins, that was all the time we needed to let let the service crew deal with the usual checks and inspections to let us remove our suits, take in some more liquids to stop dehydration and grab a bite to eat and generally cool down the body temperature. 

Stages 3,4 and 5 were the best of the day for us as by the first service halt we had climbed to 7^th in class from a seeding of 14^th.We drove and navigated our way round the three stages almost perfectly with more and more cars ending their day in the scenery, one of which was our friend mark Wheeler in his MK11 Escort, when we were approaching a very fast left hander we found mark standing on the middle of the track with his OK board to warn us to slow down as he was off. As we turned the corner we seen marks Escort with body panels strewn all over the road. We checked they were both OK and carried on. It wasn’t till the end of the rally that we managed to see the full extent of the damage done to marks car and it has been confirmed a write off. We knew that if we do keep the car on the road we could improve on our class position. We continued to keep the pace and did improve some of our times as by the end of the next loop of three stages we had climbed to 5^th in class. This was confirmed at the second service halt that we were indeed starting to turn heads with our times that matched those of the local rally teams who had prior knowledge of the stages.

 Stage 6 was cancelled due to a spectator having heat-stroke and having to be taken away by Ambulance and the roads actually melting away due to the heat which had peaked at this point to an incredible 36 degrees outside the car,who really knows what the temperature inside the car would have been. 

This left just two stages for us to complete and as they were a repeat of stage 1 & 2 we knew and liked them very much by now so we decided to up the pace yet again, we drove perfectly on the last two stages and could only manage to beat 1 other car in our class to claim 4^th in class by a mere 8 seconds. 

We completed the event claiming 4^th in class and 69^th overall, leaving the team more than happy with the days performance against some of the top tarmac rally teams in the country. 

We will of course be back next year to try and claim a top three position and would like to thank the following people who helped make it all happen for the team on this event:

• GMC-MOTORSPORT'S service crew, Stuart, Alan, Paul and the team, for being there where and when they should and for putting up with the heat of the day as well as keeping the car going all day.

• Connacht Motor club for the best-organised event we have ever had the pleasure of competing at and for the Marshall’s and thousands of spectators who cheered on the Scottish Crews. 

• Sligo Fire Service for allowing us the use of their station during service to shield us from the heat thanks Paul. 

• Our supporters who travelled over from Scotland to cheer us on and enjoy with us the best Irish Craic we have had in a long while. 

We will be back soon with an update on the teams plans for the remainder of the year budget permitting