Young Rally Driver of the Year 2009!

Hi all,
Apologies for the slight delay, things were very busy for the last week, then I was struck down with the flu all this week, starting to get back on my feet now.
We had some great news two weeks ago, with the announcment that I was voted Young Rally Driver of the Year, aka the Billy Coleman award. This gives me backing to the value of €50,000 for the 2010 season.
However, before the 2010 season, we still had one rally to go, IRC Rally of Scotland. It was to be an extremely tough event all round, with some of the muddiest conditions I had ever seen.
The rally started on Thursday evening with two runs round Scone Palace in Perth. We had a slight hic-up when I got lost and dropped a few seconds, quite embarrasing when there was such a big crowd there! We dropped time to Kris Hall in another R2 on both runs, but I didn't let this faze me as Super Special's are a pet hate of mine!
The rally started proper on Friday morning, and I knew after the first corner that we had made a bad decision by not putting enought cuts in the tyres to deal with the mud. However, we were quicker than Kris by 4 seconds, which I was happy with. The second stage was a lot muddier, and our bad tyre choice was made even more obvious, as we dropped 5 seconds to Kris. We came back to service and put on new tyres with more cuts, and wen't out to do two new stages. It was a good choice with tyres as I felt really at home in the muddy coditions, and were on for a good time. Unfortunatly 1km from the stage end, we broke a drive shaft while flat in fifth gear on a long right hand corner, sending us into a high speed spin down the road, coming to rest way down the road from where it all started. Unfortunatly with the shaft broken, it was the end of our rally, and a possible top 10 result. I was gutted, as I knew I hadn't shown my true potential. However we battled on and got the car ready for SupeRally the following day. In the IRC, instead of the usual 10 penalty per stage missed in the WRC, you just drive around being timed, but do not form part of the overall results. So this was an oppertunity to prove what pace we really had. We had a mixed day, as I had picked one particular stage to really push on, and on the first pass we got a puncture, and the seocnd pass it was cancelled after a car running ahead of us crashed and blocked the stage! Still, our other stage times were top front-wheel drive, and I feel we proved a point of what might have been!
And so we reach the end of an epic season, all but two activity's left before the end of the year. Firstly, I am returning to the co-driving seat, for a rally with another young driver with Irish blood, Dan O' Brien, on the Grizedale stages. It seems fitting that Grizedale was one of my first rally's last year, so now it's time for me to pass on what I've learned in the last 12 months! Then the following week, I have something that I have spend the whole year preparing for, the FST International Shootout. This shootout has a fantastic prize of a years work experience at M-Sport, something in which I could only dream of at present, and I will do all in my power to try and win the prize. The shootout covers many different aspects, mental and physical ability, your media skills, and I suppose most imprtantly, your driving skills. Combined into this trip will be my FSTi prize of a test sessoin in a Focus RSWRC, with tuition from none other than Mikko Hirvonen. This is set to be an amazing day, and I am sure I will try to glean as much as I can from Mikko!
As I brushed on earlier there is the simple matter of a thing called next year. I would ask you all to please stay tuned to the website for an exciting release in the next few weeks, outlining some very exciting news that has been developing over the last while!
In the mean time take care, and keep and eye out!
Craig