Molly's Blog - Ulster Rally

It has been an up and down few weeks. It was fantastic to have Mum back over again. In the lead up to the Ulster Rally we had some really good preparation and testing. On the down side, the rally itself was incredibly tough and it was frustrating to not be able to come away with a finish or any solid times.

Citroen were also out at the rally debuting their new DS3 R3 rally car and I was able to attend their press day and have a passenger ride in the car. It is a 1.6L turbo with the paddle shift from the WRC car. It was completely different to the C2R2, but incredibly quick. The torque and technology was very impressive and it looks like it will be a successful package. 

We completed the Ulster recce on the weekend prior to the rally instead of the usual Thursday, which made the rally week a little less stressful and also gave us more time to go over our pace notes. I was really happy with our notes and the progress I am making with them. The roads are tricky to write notes for as they can be difficult to read, and trying to judge the speed you can carry around the corners can be deceiving. In lots of places there is the potential to carry a lot more momentum than you think, however in other places which look ok, things like the surface, if the corner narrows, if there is a cut or a driveway which will bring dirt out etc, all have to be considered. The challenge is then to look at all of this and come up with some notes that are simple and concise.

There was a reasonable amount of rain leading up to the rally and even on the morning of the rally, however this all cleared up and heading for the first stage the roads were completely dry and the sun was shining. Pirelli had a new slick available, and after trying this on the shakedown, I was really happy with the grip.

The plan was to have a push and really see how much I could close my gap to the top guys. In our testing my pace was good and I was confident in the notes. The first stage was going very well, (maybe too well!) and we came too fast over a crest into a right hand corner and ran wide. In hindsight my note was a bit optimistic for the crest because by the time the car settled, we ran out of room to wash off enough speed for the corner. We were stuck there for over a minute.

When we got going again, the car was getting hot. The plastic moulding around the radiator had moved and was blocking the radiator, so we had to drive through the stage slowly. At the end of the stage we stopped and removed the front bumper and ripped out all the offending plastic, and feeling a little frustrated, we made our way to the start of the second stage.

However, it wasn’t to be our weekend. We landed heavily on a jump and damaged the driveshaft. With a bit of disbelief, we crawled to the end of the stage. There was still another stage and long transport section ahead of us before we would make it to service so we had to call it quits for the day.

We Super-Rallied and rejoined leg 2 on Saturday.  But we were again on the side of the stage after colliding with another car on the stage. We caught another competing car, which was suffering mechanical problems and could not wash off enough speed as I came up behind it. It was a horrible situation to be in and we were both incredibly disappointed but these things are a bit hard to prepare for.

The Ulster Rally was the last tarmac round of the Championship so it is now back to the gravel, which I have to admit I had been looking forward to for a while. However I am now a lot more comfortable on the tarmac and despite a frustrating weekend, I am keen to tackle another tarmac event before the year is out. We will just have to see how budget goes!

For now all our efforts will be directed to preparing for the Trackrod Rally in Yorkshire in September. There is a fair bit of work needed to the car so it will be a busy few weeks for the guys in Ireland and I am planning a few weekends over there in the next couple of weeks.. The never ending joys of rallying!!