RallySport Magazine November 2016

and as I couldn’t wait to start rallying,
I looked around for something cheap
and simple that would get me started. I
ended up with a Fiesta XR2 which was
an ex-Brands Hatch car. She hadn’t
much power and even less grip, but it
was a start.
First rally and Conor co-drove for
me. Now everybody will tell you that I
crashed on the first corner of the first
stage of my first rally, but that’s not
true. I made it to the second corner
and crashed there. We got going again
and took a stage maximum, but went
on to finish the rally. That was it, no
turning back.
WATCH HERE
▲
Over the next few years the
Fiesta grew horns and became
“the baby baboon”. I fitted a
home-built 2-litre 16v Zetec with 45mm
Webers and a Quaife gearbox, lengthened
the wheel base by four inches and
widened it by two inches. She had a
handling characteristic all of her own.
I had to drive it completely on the
limit to get the times, but if I made
even a small mistake, which was fairly
regular, it usually ended up in a tree or
on its roof, or both. Luckily Conor is a
brilliant panel beater, and although he
got seriously peed off, he never let me
down.
We had some great results now and
then, a couple of top three overalls and
even one outright win, with Rosemarie
(my wife) co-driving.
All good things come to an end and
so did the Fiesta. I went one tree too
far in 2001 and broke a collarbone and
a few ribs, and the Baby Baboon was
dead and buried.
That’s when I bought my first Mk2,
a red Group 4 with a 2-litre Vauxhall
engine. It was a good car but for some
reason I didn’t warm to it. I still don’t
know why that was.
A few months later, I traded it in
for an F2 Escort. I was back to frontwheel
drive and something I was more
familiar with. Again we had some good
results, but there was something big
missing ... “FUN”.
At this stage I had ran out of
navigators as my big offs were making
it very hard to talk anybody into getting
in the car. Mickey Broderick, my cousin,
had sat in the early years, but he wised
up when the Fiesta went 2-litre and
hung up his helmet.
Fintan McGuckin sat with me for
most of the Fiesta 2-litre years and
was probably there for most of the
biggest accidents, then he went and got
married and that was that. Sean Ferris
did some of the local events and there
were loads of people in for “one offs”, in
fact I don’t think I have ever had a bad
navigator.
The F2 was sold in 2003 and I told
the Mrs that was it - no more rallying!
That lasted for 11 days until I watched
Coronation Street with her one evening
and she knew I wasn’t taking the whole
NOVEMBER 2016 - RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE | 37