Irish privateer Daniel Barry has far from had it easy on the opening day of his second IRC event. Constant overheating problems plagued the Enniskerry man (25) from the fist stage of the long first day.
“We just cant get going, its like driving forward but looking behind you all the time, as you know its going to start any time after the 6-kilometer mark” said co-driver Martin Brady (31). “Once the problem starts, we both loose concentration, as I am watching the gauges and trying to read the pace-notes at the same time, while Daniel is having to back off and only drive half the speed he would normally. It makes it difficult to find a rhythm under those circumstances”.
The first day of the event was a tough one with 9 sages covering 137-kilometers over a 12 hour period. “We have had other peoples accidents to contend with too” continues Brady a member of the Irish Guarda. “We never had a clean run at any stage. It would have been so easy to pull out of the event on a number of occasions today, but that’s not our style, and we have travelled a long way to start this rally, so it would be nice to finish it if we could”.
At each opportunity the team have done what they can to enable Daniel and Martin to continue, “giving up is not an option” stated Team Manager Danny Barry Snr. “There is no such thing as problems in our team, only solutions. We have made a number of modifications to the car this evening, which we hope will sort out the problems, it would be nice if the lads got a chance to prove themselves on the second day”.
The narrow twisty mountain roads of day 2 continue with an 8am start on Saturday morning from the capital city of Las Palmas, returning 6 stages later for the finish at Parque Santa Catalina at 1600hrs. Factory Skoda driver, Jan Kopecky leads the event from teammate Juho Hanninen, with Guy Wilks, also in a Skoda, in 3rd after early leader Kris Meeke picked up a puncture on a 30-kilometer stage dropping over a minute.