Hi all,
Here is some in car footage that has been kindly uploaded onto Youtube by Pro-Motion in car cameras.
Firstly, SS7 from the Jim Walsh Cork Forestry Rally in the new Fiesta R2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6MI0kquRes&feature=player_profilepage
and SS6 from the Toddsleap.com Ulster International Rally, Torr Head
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx3KhnM_mMU&feature=player_profilepage
Enjoy!
Craig
Wednesday 26 August 2009
Tuesday 25 August 2009
Champions!
Well, what a weekend it's been! Two championships, in one year, in one day, on one stage!
Ulster was a landmark weekend for me and Gareth, Kick Energy Fiesta Sport Trophy UK and Ireland champions 2009, in my first season of trying. Could I ask for more than that?! It's been a roller-coaster season, and everyone has put in a huge effort to get us here, and right now I'm just relishing the moment. Two weeks ago, I was in a hospital bed, with a burst appendix, wondering how I could convince the doctor to allow me to drive a road car let alone a rally car! And yet, here we are, champions!
The whole rally ran faultlessly. Our recce was suburb, some of the best stages I've ever seen, the Pre-event test, the shakedown, everything was pointing towards a great weekend. We started the rally cautiously, and steadily improved our pace. We had a fantastic run over Fridays last loop of stages, but Kris was right on it too. Incredibly over the notorious Torr Head stage, we only beat Kris by just 0.8, and we both admitted to being on the doorhandles, great fun, but the risks were high.
We started leg 2 15 seconds behind Kris, and unfortunately for Kris, his rally fell apart in front of us on the start line. A sheared wheel hub bringing his rally to an end. Honestly, I was gutted to be denied the battle, as I was going to do everything in my power to get in front of him, and I'm sure it was going to be a great day. However, these things happen in rallying, and I had my mechanical trouble back at the start of the year at the Malcolm Wilson, so I know just how it feels.
With the pressure now on to finish, we did just that, still winning the Fiesta event, and doing enough to secure the two championships. We still had four stages of the International rally to complete, and we had some trouble. A front anti-roll bar linkage came off, making it feel like the Titanic to drive on some of the fast stuff! We got it fixed in service, and while jumping in to the car, it dawned on me, these were going to be my last two stages in the ST, as we are driving the R2 car for the remainder of the season. It was quite sad I must say, as I can remember the day we got the car, and the excitement of it all, and now I was about to drive it competitively for the final time. We finished the rally, and brought the car back to parc ferme, and breathed a sigh of relief. The first BRC rally we finished since Pirelli back in April, and the first Irish Tarmac championship round I finished since Galway, right the way back in January!
Now that things have settled down, I would like to thank the people who made this dream possible for me.
Firstly, Gareth my co-driver, for keeping me on the right track all year, Tom Gahan and his fantastic team, for putting in a huge effort all year, always behind me and thinking outside the box, friends and family that helped out in every way, I thank you all.
Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my Mum, Dad and Sister, for being there for me, for the last 8 or 9 months. There work goes unnoticed, but it is crucial to my success this year. They go well above their call of duty every day, in order for me to achieve my long term goal, and for this, I thank you.
You would have also noticed that the site is now fully operational again, with the inclusion of a gallery, and other new features to come. Keep a close eye here over the next few days and weeks.
We are now concentrating on the next round of the FSTi in Catylunya. This will be my first tarmac WRC round, and I am looking forward to the challenge, especially in a new car, the Fiesta R2. We are also on the lookout for sponsorship in these tough times. We are considering the option of going to Trackrod, the final round of the BRC, in a 4wd Group N car, but at the moment, the budget isn't there. We will do our best over the next few weeks, and see what we can do, but at the moment, it doesn't look too good.
I'm in the doctors today, and hopefully, he will give me the go ahead to get back training, as I can see the effects of not training coming to light, so the sooner I get back in the gym the better.
Once again, please continue to visit, there's still more to come!
Craig
Ulster was a landmark weekend for me and Gareth, Kick Energy Fiesta Sport Trophy UK and Ireland champions 2009, in my first season of trying. Could I ask for more than that?! It's been a roller-coaster season, and everyone has put in a huge effort to get us here, and right now I'm just relishing the moment. Two weeks ago, I was in a hospital bed, with a burst appendix, wondering how I could convince the doctor to allow me to drive a road car let alone a rally car! And yet, here we are, champions!
The whole rally ran faultlessly. Our recce was suburb, some of the best stages I've ever seen, the Pre-event test, the shakedown, everything was pointing towards a great weekend. We started the rally cautiously, and steadily improved our pace. We had a fantastic run over Fridays last loop of stages, but Kris was right on it too. Incredibly over the notorious Torr Head stage, we only beat Kris by just 0.8, and we both admitted to being on the doorhandles, great fun, but the risks were high.
We started leg 2 15 seconds behind Kris, and unfortunately for Kris, his rally fell apart in front of us on the start line. A sheared wheel hub bringing his rally to an end. Honestly, I was gutted to be denied the battle, as I was going to do everything in my power to get in front of him, and I'm sure it was going to be a great day. However, these things happen in rallying, and I had my mechanical trouble back at the start of the year at the Malcolm Wilson, so I know just how it feels.
With the pressure now on to finish, we did just that, still winning the Fiesta event, and doing enough to secure the two championships. We still had four stages of the International rally to complete, and we had some trouble. A front anti-roll bar linkage came off, making it feel like the Titanic to drive on some of the fast stuff! We got it fixed in service, and while jumping in to the car, it dawned on me, these were going to be my last two stages in the ST, as we are driving the R2 car for the remainder of the season. It was quite sad I must say, as I can remember the day we got the car, and the excitement of it all, and now I was about to drive it competitively for the final time. We finished the rally, and brought the car back to parc ferme, and breathed a sigh of relief. The first BRC rally we finished since Pirelli back in April, and the first Irish Tarmac championship round I finished since Galway, right the way back in January!
Now that things have settled down, I would like to thank the people who made this dream possible for me.
Firstly, Gareth my co-driver, for keeping me on the right track all year, Tom Gahan and his fantastic team, for putting in a huge effort all year, always behind me and thinking outside the box, friends and family that helped out in every way, I thank you all.
Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my Mum, Dad and Sister, for being there for me, for the last 8 or 9 months. There work goes unnoticed, but it is crucial to my success this year. They go well above their call of duty every day, in order for me to achieve my long term goal, and for this, I thank you.
You would have also noticed that the site is now fully operational again, with the inclusion of a gallery, and other new features to come. Keep a close eye here over the next few days and weeks.
We are now concentrating on the next round of the FSTi in Catylunya. This will be my first tarmac WRC round, and I am looking forward to the challenge, especially in a new car, the Fiesta R2. We are also on the lookout for sponsorship in these tough times. We are considering the option of going to Trackrod, the final round of the BRC, in a 4wd Group N car, but at the moment, the budget isn't there. We will do our best over the next few weeks, and see what we can do, but at the moment, it doesn't look too good.
I'm in the doctors today, and hopefully, he will give me the go ahead to get back training, as I can see the effects of not training coming to light, so the sooner I get back in the gym the better.
Once again, please continue to visit, there's still more to come!
Craig
Sunday 16 August 2009
Back on Form!
Hi All,
Firstly, I've been told that my new site will be online early next week, so this will allow things to be updated a lot quicker and more efficiently.
We have been out quite a bit since the last update, with the next round of the Kick Energy Fiesta Sport Trophy UK being the first, at the Isle of Man International Rally. It was an extremely tough event, with one day recce for 11 different stages, which was nearly as hard as the rally! With that out of the way and a good shakedown, we started the rally on Friday morning. The first stage was very tricky, and it saw the demise of my main fiesta rival, Kris Hall, and another possible threat Mark Donnelly, both with accidents. This put me in a great position for the championship, and I was leading comfertably after the first few stages. We put in a very conservative drive for the remaing few stages of the Fiesta rally, and at the end of the day, we won by over two minutes! Kris got back to fourth in the end, so it still keeps the championship quite tight. With the Fiesta rally over, we pushed on for overall results. We had a very good run over the last few stages of leg 1 to finish the day 10th overall and looking good for class R3 honours. Day 2 started well, with a few fastest times in our class, but unfortunatly on SS16, we got caught out on a tricky section of the Curragh stage, and rolled into retirement. It was an unfortunate end to a great drive, but at least we still had our Fiesta points from the previous day.
From there, we wen't to the next round of the Irish Junior Rally championship, the ALMC Junior Rally, this time, in M-Sport's new Fiesta R2 car. It was an exciting prospect giving the car it's Irish rally debut, and we created a lot of intrest in the car. It was a good day for me and Gareth, finishing second to Marty McCormack in his Citroen C2R2 Max. We had some electrical trouble to start with, but towards the end of the event, we were well able for the C2, which we were very pleased with. Overall the Fiesta R2 has a lot of potential in the right hands, and things are looking good for the future.
We wen't from there to take on our greatest task so far, Rally Finland. Again like Portugal, this was a round of the FSTi, and after missing the last two rounds, we needed to get back on top again. It was a tough recce, and we concentrated on getting as much detail as possible into our notes, and this definatly paid off when we did the rally. We had a superspecial stage on Thursday evening, and we got off to a steady start with 4th fastest time. The real stages started on Friday morning, and we immediatly set the pace. We moved into the lead and pulled out a lead of 40 seconds by the end of the day. Saturday started well with more fastest times, and we increased the lead to 50 seconds over Finnish driver Jussi Kumpamaki. However, mid way through Saturday, Kumpamaki started to charge and take time back from us. We had a 30km tes at the end of the day and we knew that we needed to push as hard as we could over this, and we did, pulling 3 seconds from Jussi, and I feel this was crucial for us. We started the final day with a 30 second lead. We chose to drive conservativly, only pushing if we had to. Jussi took 3 off us on the first stage, 3 off us on the second one, and with the second run over the famous Myhinpaa stage being cancelled, it left the short 6km Ruuhimaki to run, and with over 20 seconds in hand, we knew we could relax. We cleared the stage losing only 2 seconds, which gave us our second FSTi win by just 20 seconds after 3 days of driving, a great end to a tough week! We were also 26th overall, a great achievment for a rally as tough as Rally Finland. It was a great effort by all the team, and everyone really pulled there weight and the result was there in the end, thanks guys!
I was brought down to earth soon after the rally however, when I was admitted to hospital with appendicitus. It was removed on Friday last, and I was released on Tuesday 11th August. However I was still feeling well enough to resume National Junior Rally championship duties this weekend at the Cork Forestry, back out in M-Sports R2 car once again.
It was a great day, we finished 7th overall, and won the junior catogory, so it was nice to get the first win for the fiesta.
Looking ahead, next weekend is the Ulster Rally, which is probably going to be one of the most important events so far. With the possibility of winning both the Irish and British FST championships on the same day, it's an exctiting prospect to say the least. I'm trying not to think of the championships and drive how I usually do, which seems to work a lot of the time. And hopefully we will leave Antrim as champions all going well.
As I said the site should be online soon so keep an eye out for that
Thanks for your time,
Craig
Firstly, I've been told that my new site will be online early next week, so this will allow things to be updated a lot quicker and more efficiently.
We have been out quite a bit since the last update, with the next round of the Kick Energy Fiesta Sport Trophy UK being the first, at the Isle of Man International Rally. It was an extremely tough event, with one day recce for 11 different stages, which was nearly as hard as the rally! With that out of the way and a good shakedown, we started the rally on Friday morning. The first stage was very tricky, and it saw the demise of my main fiesta rival, Kris Hall, and another possible threat Mark Donnelly, both with accidents. This put me in a great position for the championship, and I was leading comfertably after the first few stages. We put in a very conservative drive for the remaing few stages of the Fiesta rally, and at the end of the day, we won by over two minutes! Kris got back to fourth in the end, so it still keeps the championship quite tight. With the Fiesta rally over, we pushed on for overall results. We had a very good run over the last few stages of leg 1 to finish the day 10th overall and looking good for class R3 honours. Day 2 started well, with a few fastest times in our class, but unfortunatly on SS16, we got caught out on a tricky section of the Curragh stage, and rolled into retirement. It was an unfortunate end to a great drive, but at least we still had our Fiesta points from the previous day.
From there, we wen't to the next round of the Irish Junior Rally championship, the ALMC Junior Rally, this time, in M-Sport's new Fiesta R2 car. It was an exciting prospect giving the car it's Irish rally debut, and we created a lot of intrest in the car. It was a good day for me and Gareth, finishing second to Marty McCormack in his Citroen C2R2 Max. We had some electrical trouble to start with, but towards the end of the event, we were well able for the C2, which we were very pleased with. Overall the Fiesta R2 has a lot of potential in the right hands, and things are looking good for the future.
We wen't from there to take on our greatest task so far, Rally Finland. Again like Portugal, this was a round of the FSTi, and after missing the last two rounds, we needed to get back on top again. It was a tough recce, and we concentrated on getting as much detail as possible into our notes, and this definatly paid off when we did the rally. We had a superspecial stage on Thursday evening, and we got off to a steady start with 4th fastest time. The real stages started on Friday morning, and we immediatly set the pace. We moved into the lead and pulled out a lead of 40 seconds by the end of the day. Saturday started well with more fastest times, and we increased the lead to 50 seconds over Finnish driver Jussi Kumpamaki. However, mid way through Saturday, Kumpamaki started to charge and take time back from us. We had a 30km tes at the end of the day and we knew that we needed to push as hard as we could over this, and we did, pulling 3 seconds from Jussi, and I feel this was crucial for us. We started the final day with a 30 second lead. We chose to drive conservativly, only pushing if we had to. Jussi took 3 off us on the first stage, 3 off us on the second one, and with the second run over the famous Myhinpaa stage being cancelled, it left the short 6km Ruuhimaki to run, and with over 20 seconds in hand, we knew we could relax. We cleared the stage losing only 2 seconds, which gave us our second FSTi win by just 20 seconds after 3 days of driving, a great end to a tough week! We were also 26th overall, a great achievment for a rally as tough as Rally Finland. It was a great effort by all the team, and everyone really pulled there weight and the result was there in the end, thanks guys!
I was brought down to earth soon after the rally however, when I was admitted to hospital with appendicitus. It was removed on Friday last, and I was released on Tuesday 11th August. However I was still feeling well enough to resume National Junior Rally championship duties this weekend at the Cork Forestry, back out in M-Sports R2 car once again.
It was a great day, we finished 7th overall, and won the junior catogory, so it was nice to get the first win for the fiesta.
Looking ahead, next weekend is the Ulster Rally, which is probably going to be one of the most important events so far. With the possibility of winning both the Irish and British FST championships on the same day, it's an exctiting prospect to say the least. I'm trying not to think of the championships and drive how I usually do, which seems to work a lot of the time. And hopefully we will leave Antrim as champions all going well.
As I said the site should be online soon so keep an eye out for that
Thanks for your time,
Craig
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