As a lot of you will know we (as a team) are taking this year off from rally in Canada in order to prepare the car for a trip to Scotland (hopefully-fingers crossed still) in October this year.
The Mull Rally based on the Isle of Mull, off the western coast of Scotland is a tarmac rally that has a long history with our family.
Both parents have competed here in the past, Nigel as a driver and Lou as a co-driver, for separate teams (before we were born, so YEARS ago!!) and close family friends still compete here every year. Some of our fondest memories as young kids are our vacations up to Mull with close family friends watching the Mull Rally. Nick was quite young so he probably doesn't remember the rallying quite as well as I do, but I still remember the excitement of our parents waking us up in the night to go watch some of the night stages.
With a 'Mull Reunion' in the cards, dad felt it was only fitting that we should take our car over & compete.
I say our entry is still in the 'fingers crossed' stage as it all depends on our ability to obtain the appropriate licensing & eligibility of the car. So the organizing of all that is what is occupying our time currently.
Like I said, Mull is a tarmac rally & other than a stage at Rallye Defi & a couple of Shannonville events, all our events have been on gravel or snow & ice. The car is currently with the crew at Planet Motorsport getting any issues cleared up from Tall Pines last year & making any switches necessary for tarmac rallying.
Our current aim is to enter Shannonville Stages Rally(our only OPRC event this year) in early April for some prep time with a tarmac set up before heading to the Empire State Performance Rally in New York at the end of the month. Hopefully ESPR will give us the chance to get a feel for the car in a stage rally setting; allow us to better judge breaking zones, see how the car handles on tarmac tires with a different set-up to what we are used to etc. I say "we" but I suppose that's for Nicks' benefit. It allows me as the co-driver to see what kind of crazy speed I'm letting myself in for, while having no control over the vehicle itself! Then again, if I didn't love it, I wouldn't do it!
So right now, CRC licence applications are complete, ESPR early entry will be complete by the end of the week, and our Shannonville entry should be in soon after that.
Stay tuned for photos & details on the changes we are making to the car for these events as well as write ups on the events themselves.
RSS Feed