Falling in love again…………………

It was in May 2015 that Art McCarrick made me think. He wrote in his blog ‘Ditch slapped’ about the discussions surrounding the changes to the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship. Very few people like change, especially when we are comfortable with something for a long time. As rally fans, we have been very lucky on this island, in fact more than lucky, we were absolutely spoilt with the sheer volume of WRC cars competing here since 1997.

Last year, the talk of changes to the ITRC produced some strong reactions, Donegal Motor Club announced that they would not be part of the championship in 2016 and five times ITRC champion Driver Eugene Donnelly publically spoke out against the changes. I have to admit when the debate raised its head last year I was against the changes to ITRC. All I could think of was the British Rally Championship and how a fantastic championship that regularly attracted Manufacturer teams and Scandinavian drivers through the 80s and 90s was ruined by a series of changes that eventually saw the BRC postponed in 2015.

I was around to see the tail end of the Group B era and lucky enough to experience the Circuit of Ireland in 1986 and witness the sheer excitement and brute force of the Metro 6R4s, RS200s and Audi Quattro in action as they bolted over the Irish stages. Then it all changed, Group B was banned for 1987 and Group A arrived in a dull and lack lustre way, Timo Salonen in a Mazda 323 and the infamous Ari Vatanen in a Mitsubishi Galant. It took a while but the excitement did return with the Sierra Cosworth and BMW M3 and rallying was exciting to watch again.

Before the 2016 Irish Tarmac Rally Championship kick off the R5s started arriving and each week we learnt of who was getting one or even rumoured to be getting one. Speculation surrounded the entry lists for both ITRC and National Championships of who would be competing and in what machinery and the speculation is continuing even though we are half way through the year. Names are still being bandied about as to who will be next to convert from WRC to R5.

Galway was the first test and the entry list appeared with 14 of the R5 cars featuring. Like many others I made the trek to Galway very sceptical but curious. Next up for me was the Circuit, the combination of three Rally championships (Euro, Irish and British) was a big draw and personally it didn’t disappoint, I gained two new driver heroes, Ahlin and Kajto both in R5 Fiestas. Standing on the Hamilton’s folly stage of the Circuit was my moment of realisation, at one of the many yumps on the stage I watched the International field and National field come through. Looking back through the photographs taken on the Circuit of Ireland it was the R5 cars high in the air and full of attitude not the WRC cars.

There is an old saying ‘what you gain on the swings you loose on the roundabouts’ and I feel this applies to the R5s. As a photographer I found the R5s have given me a new challenge, where do I take my pictures. The fast straights, the corner cuts and jumps are where it’s fantastic to witness these cars being driven, when engine revs are high to maintain straight line speed and gain vital seconds. The traditional ‘kodak moments’ at junctions and hairpins just don’t seem as exciting anymore. The sheer braking ability of the R5 when it arrives at a square left, the neat and tidy approach with the back end firmly under control there’s just

no drama anymore at a tight junction, unless someone has their approach completely wrong. Although having said that about the R5 I’m also starting to see it with the top spec MKIIs. Is it just me or are the traditionally sideways brigade just not as tail happy lately, well that is apart from Frank Kelly.

Drama, excitement and tension – the Donegal International Rally had it all and not only that it so very, very, nearly had a R5 victory, to think 0.4 of a second separated 1st and 2nd places. I’m sure this has brought back memories for many of the McHale and Coleman battle over the roads of Donegal with the Porsche of Coleman beating McHale in the Opel Manta by one second, a result that was discussed and rehashed for many years. I was gutted not to be able to make Donegal this year, and even more so after the following the rally over Twitter, Patterson’s Rallynews, Facebook, ShannonSportsIT results and Donegal Sport Hub. Firstly, to be able to keep up to date with all the twists and turns of the rally was amazing, what an array of resources for rally fans, secondly the sheer drama that Donegal produced this year was incredible. The ever changing leader board throughout the weekend and the battle to the wire on the last day was superb. Both Kelly and Cronin had their issues early on, a puncture for Cronin in his R5 and an excursion into a field for Kelly’s WRC, either issue normally enough to write off the chance of victory. The different agendas added to the mix, Kelly a home victory on the infamous Donegal Rally and Cronin needing to rekindle his fight for the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship.

So it may have taken nearly six months but I’m now a fan of the R5 in the Irish Rallying, they are exciting and they do provide drama; those essential ingredients that gets the fans onto the stages and the very things I thought we might lose as the WRC cars slowly retired. As Art McCarrick said in May 2015 “World Rally Cars aren’t crowd pullers, competitive rallying is” and that is what we have alive and well in Irish Rallying.