Story: Martin Brady
Hello from the floor of Dublin airport. Literally- no I didn’t fall over or fall down, just had a flight delayed from 11:30am to 6pm… not cool! Sitting here on the laptop. Is there a greater pleasure than managing to find a free plug in an airport to charge ones laptop and iphone!
So here I am in another airport on the way to another rally, and not that I am complaining even in the midst of a flight delayed by almost 7 hours, I know I am lucky to be heading off and leaving work behind yet again to travel to a new and exciting rally.
I am traveling to the state of Maine and to the towns of Newry and Mexico this weekend for the New England Forest Rally, the last round of the Rally America Series for 2010. I’m traveling out to sit with Seamus Burke on the New England Forest Rally in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX; he is a former winner of the rally, so I am hoping for a bit of luck or I may just sell the suit and helmet. Evo IXs have been unlucky for me this year! I only recently finish rallies drama-free in Fords!
This, however, should be a good rally as it is the last round of the Rally America series and a new champion will be crowned as the series is set to go down to the wire.
Antoine L’Estage from Quebec, Canada and his co-driver, Nathalie Richard, are poised to be crowned the new Rally America National Champions, thus breaking Subaru Rally Team USA’s Travis Pastrana’s run of four consecutive Rally America National Championships! But Pastrana is back in the series this weekend having missed the last rounds due to other motorsport commitments in Australia so the battle is sure to be fierce.
I have competed on quite a few events in the Rally America championship previously, but never on this event so its all new to me. Interestingly enough, I have rallied in Newry, Ireland this year for the Circuit of Ireland and Mexico last year, but I doubt they will bear any resemblance to the Newry and Mexico of the North East corner of America!
I may forget which way to hold the Jemba notes; these notes are a bit different for a European, in that they are computer-generated pace notes based on a car loaded with special equipment driving over the stage and literally spitting out the notes based on what it feels rather than what the human eye would discern. Its not a bad system, as it still gives you the rights and lefts in varying degrees of severity but for me it has a different feel to what I am used to at home.
The delayed flight has changed the plans considerably. I have missed my connecting flight out of New York as I sit and type this in Dublin, but the Irish abroad are ever resourceful and already the phone has been ringing with two Irish friends, one in New York and one in Boston offering everything from hire cars to lifts, so I know I will make recce for 7am local time Thursday. Its just a question of how much sleep I will have when I get there.
The recce will be difficult because its one pass only. However, all I have learned in the IRC this year with restricted and tough recces should stand me in good stead and I will have the opportunity to film the recce on an in-car camera so there will a means to double check any changes.
As with every new event I approach it like a tourist and I speak to people who have been there before. Marshall Clarke is a previous winner of the event with Niall McShea, and a quick phone call to him warned me of some of the things to expect. Seamus Burke is in fact also a former winner of the event so I have learned that this rally is wide and fast and takes place on good smooth logging roads that lend themselves to high average speeds, but that just sends you into some sudden tight corners at all the more velocity and the trick is to note these corners correctly and then be brave on the less treacherous sections.
Anyway, the main thing now is to make the recce and the event. I am edging ever closer and more hopeful to my flight boarding time, so I will sign off and hope to return to next week’s issue with tales of success not tales of woe or airport drama!
Kind regards
Martin Brady
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