It was with great excitement, and the smallest hint of trepidation that I agreed to lend a hand at the Mayo Stages Rally 2015 in the Killalla hinterlands. The warning to bring wet gear did little to whet my appetite. Shamefully, my only rally experience had come from playing Colin McCrae on my Gameboy Advance ten odd years ago, which was appropriate as the sight of the full accompaniment of cars had me as wide eyed as a five year old in a toy shop. My education began as soon as my boot hit the first puddle, some questionable parking was at blame of course, welcome to service HQ. A quick reccy of service commenced and I couldn’t help but admire the Maguire show which had rolled into town and seemed as if it could have been a permanent fixture, two cars, four competitors and a raft of mechanics. Yet it was with the weekend warriors that my heart truly lay.
The calm before the storm finally broke and my daydreams of winning the WRC in a Mini Cooper were cut short by the roar of the cars rumbling in to meet their crews in anticipation of the opening stages. It dawned on me, I finally understood what it was all about. The passion was clear from the crew members as they checked and double checked every inch of the cars, and even more so from the drivers who nursed the crucial cups of tea. I am reliably informed that stage 1 presented the toughest conditions for drivers in quite some time; the heavy rain which fell on the previous night put an end to any aspirations of a leisurely start. As the first car wound its way to the first stage I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Of course the WRC cars leading the board was the norm, I knew that much. However the carnage which followed caught me completely by surprise.
The aforementioned stage 1 claimed a number of victims early on, as progress was halted by bales, ditches and walls alike. Relying on sporadic bursts of chat from the radio, we awaited the first returns to the service. I waited with bated breath as my fellow Mayo man Noel Murphy spun into view, shortly after diverting from the intended route and into a wall. The Civic had remained intact, although the bumper took a battering and the radiator had reached unknown heights under the bonnet. Thank God for GoPro, the dashboard cam caught the telling “ah bollocks,” as the car left the road.
The social aspect of the rally scene is one to savour, I was welcomed with open arms despite my inability to contribute anything more than the nod of my head and the occasional “ah yeah”. Eventually I began to grow in confidence, so much so that I could maintain a conversation with a few of the drivers without sounding like a complete eejit.
My fondest memory of the day came in service following a bruising stage 6. Mayo & District Motorsport’s chairman Matthew Murphy’s Toyota Corolla limped in off the road, missing half a rear end , and nursing a break in the suspension. It was as if the A Team were called as Colin Loughney arrived on the scene and proceeded to empty the contents of his workshop into a disorderly pile on the ground, finally the gas welder emerged and the surgery commenced. After an anxious few minutes, a freshly welded if somewhat bent shaft emerged where two halves had existed before. A roll of duct tape and a ratchet strap finished the job. I still struggle to believe that the car went on to finish a further three stages. Such is the magic of the rally. As one old boy noted; necessity breeds invention.
My time in service drew to an end and at last I got out to witness the action of the final stage. As we stood around in a field waiting for the stream of safety cars to trickle through, a wintery shower did little to deter the enthusiasts. I was honored to be sharing this moment with a field of strangers, although I would have liked to share one fella’s massive umbrella too. There is something quite spectacular about the noise, and subsequent sight of a finely tuned machine screaming down a country lane, narrowly avoiding a bale which looked as if it had been dropped from the heavens. My all too brief dance with the rally has left me with a thirst for more, a thirst which will be quenched at the first opportunity.
Words by guest contributor Conor Nealon
@conornealon18
Thanks to
@MayoMotorClub &
@Sean_Hynes
