Thanks to our sponsors
Thanks to our sponsors this year for all their help.
RVR.ie supply heating equipment to businesses, plumbers and homeowners. Their products include gas and oil boilers, solar panels and wood pellet and log burning boilers. They have been nominated as finalists in this years’ National Sustainable Energy Awards and offer high quality equipment that offers excellent value for money.
For more information, please visit www.RVR.ie or call them on 0818 313 003.
Thanks also go to Tralee Quick Fit. Tyres, Windscreens, Exhausts - 066 712063 and M/A-COM Technology.
We are always looking for more sponsors and are planning next years’ programme already. If you are interested in sponsoring the reigning winners of the National Forest Rally Championship Junior Class, please drop us an email at info@shedsport.com.
End of year Class 9 Forestry win
So the Forestry season is all over for the year following the last round in Birr.
Ray Breen took the overall honours but we’ve happily found out that we took the class win in the Juniors. We were the only crew to take part in sufficient rounds to be eligible for an award. As a result we get a nice evening out, some glass and a chance for a booze up!
Full results and details of this weekends prizegiving over on Rally.ie
Birr 08 in-car
Here’s the full ss3 in-car from the weekend. Apologies about the intermittent camera blackouts!!!
Mmm, cake
SS2/4 was a wee bit muddy at the weekend… Full report and videos to follow in the next few days.
Live updates from the Birr forestry
# Ss4: lack of gears and a mud soaked windscreen caused us to slip off the road. Found reverse but couldn’t get a forward gear. Rally over. 31 days ago
# Ps - times are available via rally.connect.ie 31 days ago
# Ss1 a little slippy but ok. Ss2 very treachorous and muddy. Grip levels were up for ss3 and we had a good run through. 31 days ago
# Scrutiny passed. Still quite wet, hopefully it’ll clear up overnight. 31 days ago
# Scrutiny for the Birr forestry in Nenagh this afternoon. Seeded 206, hoping for good run out this weekend. 32 days ago
Birr Preview
The entry list for the Birr forestry rally is now out.
The event takes place this weekend over approx 67km of stage miles and as the last round of the championship should be a good bit of craic! We’re seeded at 206.
Full details over on Rally.ie
Cork Forestry Roundup
We had a bit of a mixed run at the weekend, but were happy enough with our finish after problems late on.
The opening stages held up really well over the first and second loops, albiet a little muddy second time through. We had a slow enough start as man and machinery took a while to get back up to speed after a few months break.
The third loop included the first run over the 21k Streamhill stage which wasn’t as daunting or arduous as one might think. Unfortunately, early mechanical gremlins grew as the car wasn’t pulling right consistently. Seemingly randomly, she’d pull fantastically out of some corners and a little dead out of others.
Uphill sections were also giving trouble at times, which wasn’t helped by poor performance from the squidgy bits on the long SS5. SS6 was a little better as we started to get back on form on the last stage before final service.
The final loop started off better with a good run over the first two. The car still wasn’t right but the times weren’t affected too badly. Unfortunately the gear knob broke off before the start of SS8 which caused a bit of caution in case gears weren’t forthcoming in slower corners. To make matters worse, the rubber holding up the gear linkage finally had enough of the temperature and melted, leaving us stuck with third gear for most of SS9.
Despite the mechanical problems, we were happy enough with the times, which were never too far off the “non billy coleman” runners. When it went right things were good.
Next on the agenda? Early investigations suggest the power problem might be due to a faulty oil pressure sensor, causing a lack of VTEC. Mulcahy has to keep investigating and tie down the cause of the power problem, then it’s head vs heart on whether to have a final run out for the year in Birr or save the budget for next year.
We’ll keep you up to date…
Photos with thanks to RallyMad Motorsport Photography and Pablo Rally Photography respectively.
Live updates from the Cork Forestry
Interim results available all day Saturday from http://www.corkmotorclub.com/
* Ss9: short shifter knob broke off, compounded by the gear linkage melting. But we struggled through to finish. 46 days ago
* Ss7 and ss8: fine, but more slippy and still way down on power 46 days ago
* Edit: last message should have read 5 and 6! 47 days ago
* Ss6 and ss7: 6 was slippy enough and it just didn’t click together. She’s not pulling quite right at times. 7 was a little better. 47 days ago
* Ss3 and ss4: a good deal quicker on 3, but down on power a little for 4. Surface is holding up well and the rain’s mostly holding off. 47 days ago
* SS1 and ss2: plenty of grip available, just easing her back into it. 3rd is being a bit finnecky. about 1 month ago
* Lining up to leave parc ferme… about 1 month ago
* Just heading to sign on now after scrutiny. Weather’s poor, looks like it could be a day for ducks tomorrow… about 1 month ago
* Cork Forestry srutiny tonight from 5.30, drivers briefing late at 10pm. More info to follow… about 1 month ago
Cork forestry next weekend; Time and distance schedule out
The time and distance schedule is out for the Cork Forestry on Saturday. You can download it from http://www.corkmotorclub.com/ or directly by clicking here.
We’re in for a long enough day, should be leaving parc ferme at around 08:30 and back to the finish ramp at 19:00. More details (and entry list) to follow soon.
Cork Forestry Regs Out
So after a mixed run and untimely end in the Wexford forestry (above), we can look forward to the Cork forestry next month. The Class 9 drivers title looks out of reach (Killarney and Birr look increasingly unlikely to run) so we can go out and have a days’ craic in Cork.
This years’ event is a one day format, running on Saturday 16th August. There’s some more info and discussion about it over on rallyforums (registration required) but 100kms of stage mileage and a 21km stage should make things extremely interesting!!!
Regs out now on www.corkmotorclub.com.
Photo with thanks to Pablo Rally / pabloautocross
Clare Autocross
Last Sunday June the 29th Clare Motorclub ran there rescheduled loose surface autocross. The track and organisation was top notch, it was a credit to the club. Unfortunately there was a very small entry - just 15 entries were received.
After deciding to take part in the event very late in the week, a late night Saturday night was spent replacing the Petrol tank after Wexford. Much cheaper than going to the pub. I was hoping to have a bit of luck but unfortunately the mechanical gremlins struck again when I broke a CV joint on the Final run.
Results and Pictures can be found on Claremotorclub.com
Next on the agenda is a substantial rebuild including fitting an Mfactory gearkit.
Live updates from the Wexford Forestry
Full details over on Rally.ie or on the rally page at the Wexford Motor Club website.
- Sprang a fuel leak at the start of ss5, nursed her through it but had to pull out before ss6 as it was pouring. No luck :/ 1 day ago
- Lost 30-40 secs off the start of ss4 - a belt wouldn’t click and we had to pull in. Clawed some time back with a quick but ragged run 1 day ago
- Ss3: no quicker than last run through. Still slippy. 1 day ago
- Ss2: quick stage, happy enough. 1 day ago
- Ss1: overshoot on a sqr, fight with a bale. Otherwise quite slippy. Always with the bales :O 1 day ago
- http://twitpic.com/1yg1 - scrutiny was empty enough, all done and dusted for the evening… 2 days ago
- On the way to scrutiny, just passing through waterford. Weather looks good for tmw, but heat could affect tyre choice… 2 days ago
- Found a broken steering rack while tracking yesterday. Prob caused by the arm on the lakes. Had a spare, but busy evening for mulcahy… 2 days ago
- Wexford Forestry scrutiny tomorrow from 4-8 in Enniscorthy. Could be a long haul from West Cork in the morning :O 3 days ago
Wexford forestry upcoming
The regs are out for the Wexford Forestry on the 8th of June. 5 Stages run twice should make for an interesting day’s rallying. We’ll be out hoping for a good run in the 5th round of the championship and revenge on the CV joint that let us down in Waterford. Must send the entry in soon enough…
Full details over on wexfordmotorclub.com or to download as a pdf here.
Moonraker in-car
It took long enough, but I finally got the in-car from the Moonraker ripped and cut together. Unfortunately, due to problems with the camera and scant little mileage before we burst the CV, there’s only about 4 mins of footage there. Oh well. Enjoy.
Shanera hairpin
I’ve just finished ripping our in-car from Shanera and I’ll hopefully have it up by tomorrow. In the meantime, above is a clip of us at the downhill hairpin on Shanera. Thanks again to Denis from RallyMad Motorsport Photography.
Lakes photo
The downhill hairpin on Shanera. With thanks to Denis from RallyMad Motorsport Photography.
Lakes review
Well, we made it to the finish of the lakes yesterday. Unfortunately, we only got two stages in the juniors - we weren’t best pleased when the first loop of three were all cancelled after the stages went over the road closing time. Plenty of sightseeing driving through…
Despite being slow as a wet week on Caragh Lake (trying to adjust back to tar), we put in a good time on Shanera and clawed our way back up to 13th. We were very disappointed not to have more stages as we were just getting into the swing of things.
We had some fun on left handers as we had problems with our upper right suspension arm, and we had already given away our spare :( Shudders galore, but it held.
Video of Shanera to follow soon. Back to the forests and no cancelled stages!!!
Live updates for the Lakes juniors
Live results on rally.connect.ie
Pre-event roundup
All set for the morning, the car’s been in parc ferme since Friday Evening. Flew through scrutiny, but the bypass was busy as usual…
Thankfully, the weather’s set to improve tomorrow. We were out marshalling on Cod’s head today and it didn’t stop raining all day. So hopefully that’s most of the rain gone for the weekend 
Lakes this weekend
So it turns out that it was a CV joint that burst at the Moonraker. And not the gearbox. Phew!!!
Thankfully that means that we can get a run this weekend in the Juniors section of the rally of the Lakes (436). We were out reccein on Sunday, and although we don’t get Moll’s gap this year, at least we’ll get a couple of runs at Caragh lake and a go at Shanera, and the stages look pretty good.
We’ll be blogging it again, and live times will be up on rally connect. Full details and entry lists are up on the following page at rally.ie, http://www.rally.ie/article.php?article_id=080128/224114, or at the http://www.rallyofthelakes.com/ website.
Oh and I’m still cutting together the clips of the Moonraker and Skibb autocross. There’ll be a glut of videos after this weekend
Moonraker round up
So we were in joint second after 2 stages yesterday, and just getting ready to have a crack at it in the afternoon when something broke. We had no v-tec off the start of stage 3, and within a few hundred yards of being all over the place, we slid off when she locked up. Looks like a gearbox problem, although a broken CV joint is another possibility.
It’s extra disappointing because the stages were lovely and we were just getting on the pace. The Vee was a great opener. Oh well, back to the drawing board… Video to follow next week.
Photo with thanks to http://www.irish-rally-photos.net.
Live updates from the Moonraker forestry
Full event details on rally.ie
Skibb Autocross roundup; Moonraker this weekend
S
So the car’s all ready for the Moonraker this weekend. We’ll be out as 202, near the front of the road again. We took her out for a spin at the Skibbereen autocross last week, and I’ve uploaded a couple of photos over on the photos page. Video to follow next week.
We were trying to bed in the new brakes on the front, and the first couple of runs it was tough to hold on to her as the brakes were sticking and pulling us all over the place. But that cleared, they bedded in well, and the afternoon saw Mulcahy put in a time of 2:31 while I was still getting used to the car with a 2:39. Unfortunately it had to stay that on the last run as Mulcahy went the wrong way round a pole I had an overshoot and shed loads of time…
I’ll get him next time!!!
Thanks to our service team!
Just a quick word of thanks to the lads who have helped out with service this year.
Thanks to Ian Mulcahy for help last weekend, but also to Ronan Walsh and Maurice McSweeney for their hard work and early starts this year.
Now, time to rebuild for the Moonraker in two weeks time!!!
Limerick Forestry In-Car
So we pushed it a little too hard trying to get into the points and slipped out on the last stage on Sunday. We struggled for times a lot of the day as we were first on the road, and there was absolutely no grip. The car performed perfectly but there was just no tweaking to be done to get more traction.
Missing from the above is another fight with a bale. It seems to be a bit of a trademark!!!
Next up is the Moonraker Forestry on the 13th of April. Hopefully we’ll have a bit more grip and a lot more points…
Live updates from the Limerick Forestry
Final times and results up on http://rally.connect.ie/results.php?rally=LF08
Tom White Memorial Limerick Forestry Preview
Well, we’ve been seeded at 204 for sunday, the third round of the 2008 Forestry Championship. As usual, I’ll be blogging it tomorrow at scrutiny and on the day. In the meantime, check out the links below for more info!
Carraig action photos
Click for bigger. With thanks to M. Schayer Rally Photography - 086 3171781 / mschayer@o2.pl
Limerick Forestry Entry Sent
Well I’ve sent the entry in for the Limerick Tom White Memorial Forestry Rally in two weeks time. Angus Sealey’s new online entry form makes it all so easy…
There isn’t a lot left to do, after a nice run out in Carraig there were a few minor dents to fix and panels to beat, but that was all. Bigger brakes on the front might help shave a few more seconds off the times.
More info in the next few days…
Cheers
Des
Carraig In-car
I cut together some of our in-car footage from Carraig. Included are a little of SS2 and SS3 in the darkness, and most of SS3 including our fight with a bale. Enjoy!
Class win in Carraig
The final times are up on rally.ie and despite being told at the stop car we were only 3s up on JP Ruth, the times show it was a slightly quicker 25s and just enough to take the class win by 7 seconds. Damnit, we would have sticked around for the crystal if we’d known!!!
Ah well. At least it’s some much needed championship points after our poor start in Mitchelstown. I’ll be cutting together the video over the next few days, including a nice fight with a bale…
Cheers
Des
Live updates from the Willie Loughman Rally
less than a minute ago
1 day ago
Carrick fast approaching
The Willie Loughman memorial rally is coming up this weekend and is sure to have plenty of excitement. The rally kicks off at 5AM and the first three stages are in darkness.
As it’s round 2 of our Hankook National Forestry Championship campaign, we’ll be taking part in the Junior class. We’ve been seeded as first of the juniors and will be running as first car on the road with number 201. The full entry list is now up on rally.ie.
As per the last event, I’ll be liveblogging the rally right here. Stay tuned for more details before the weekend!
Cheers
Des
Tipperary Forestry 08 SS2 In-car
I finally got a decent version of SS2 uploaded to youtube. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted our off. Sorry. Yes, I am that stupid!!!!
SS2 in-car on the way
After finally getting the in-car from Tipp SS2 uploaded to Youtube, the quality turned out terrible. Thanks to the awful internet connection in Kenmare the only way I could get it to upload was by making the file really small, so the quality suffered. However, I’m in the middle of re-encoding the video and should have a decent version uploaded soon!!!
Cheers
Des
One of the offending articles…
…the others being the two squidgy bits inside the car. Shock sheared at the top after a grand total of 8 and a half stages.
Bloody spax!!!
Live updates from the Sean Conlon Memorial Rally
- Car’s loaded up and we’re away home. We managed 11th of 24 in a nice leisurely ss1 run out. The focus now turns to carrick forestery in 3 weeks time… 1 day ago
- Back in to service. Probable cause a broken shock on the back. Video evidence inconclusive!!! 1 day ago
- Waiting for the end of the stage to get a pull out. We’ve been joined by another civic in the same ditch… 2 days ago
- Ss2: standing on a ditch. Car’s fine, just beached on soft. 2 days ago
- Ss1:Clear run, no problems. Very slippy and a lot of mud out. 2 days ago
- 6am start’s pretty grim. Off to ANOTHER drivers briefing at 7.30 - last night was for juniors only… 2 days ago
- Still waiting on the drivers briefing… Grrr, starving :O 2 days ago
- Scrutiny passed. They’re giving plenty of attention to cars here… 2 days ago
- Lined up at scrutiny. More waiting!!! 2 days ago
- Made it to Mitchelstown. Putting new tyres on, then it’s into scrutiny. 2 days ago
- Loaded on the trailer, heading for mitchelstown. Brimmed with petrol for the morning… 2 days ago
- Car rebuilt, new blue paint job, everything ready to go. “DVD” Recce complete so it’s off to scrutiny tomorrow… 3 days ago
Coming up: In-car blogging. But no, not mid-stage!!!
We’ll be liveblogging the upcoming Tipperary Forestry Rally.
No, I won’t have a laptop in the car while flying over crests. But i’ll be posting updates after each stage.
So if you’re interested in the latest, stay tuned right here or sign up to follow us on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/shedsport
Cheers
Des
Tipperary entry now up on Rally.ie
The first round of the championship is now less than a week away. The entry list is up on Rally.ie and we’ll be running 7th on the road as number 207.
I’ll be adding more info in the final build up during the week. Stay tuned…
Preparations continuing…
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With just over a month left to prepare for the Tipperary Forestry, our preparations are well underway. Aidan acquired several sets of 14" Nova wheels and we’re stocked up on tyres for the year. Thankfully it seems that the lack of an extrusion on the inside of the nova wheels means that without going up to 15" we should still be able to fit larger discs and racing pads front and rear. Which is nice, because we’re slightly less likely to die during the campaign. Another development is that front wings from a saloon civic don’t fit the hatchback. Although personally I wouldn’t be too bothered by a 1 inch panel gap, Mulcahy disagreed. New wings are on the way. The final news is that the on-board camera is on the way. Sponsors? Give us some money now and make sure you get your message on Youtube!! |
Finally out of the shed.
The beast has finally exited the shed after a long rest period. Now fully recuperated we decided to go for a spin the morning. Apologies for the poor camera angle.
Sponsors wanted
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We’re currently looking for sponsors for the 2008 season. If you’re interested, we’ve just released a flyer detailing the benefits of sponsorship. You can download the flyer here (PDF, 1.3MB). Why not have a look? |
Merry Christmas from Shedsport.com
| All the Shedsport crew would like to wish you a merry Christmas and a prosperous 2008. |  |
If you thought finding a good name was hard…
…wait ’til you see the logo. It’s clear neither Aidan or myself are gifted graphic designers. Let’s hope our actual designers are!!!
What’s in a name?
It’s taken us a long hard month of effort to come up with a new name to brand our championship under. No matter how ridiculous or how boring, we pretty much tried them all.
From the placeholder upthemiddle.net, we progressed through the boring AMDF motorsport, flatovercrest motorsport, flatintocrest motorsport and quickly dismissed the lot.
Changeingears.com didn’t last much longer, total commitment motorsport was quickly commited to the bin, nuts for ruts was just way too dodgy and random rallying was starting to look like a good option. Ho hum.
Feic arse motorsport briefly held some sway, but was never going to be a runner. West coast motorsport , sandman motorsport and bay area rallying sounded good, but that’s because we’d heard them before. Flat out famous was in the line-up but sounded way too familiar.
Upthegears.net, torquesteer.net and foot2thefloor.net were all given their notice. Things were looking very grim indeed.
Until… SHEDSPORT!!! As soon as the joke was made, the name was just bound to stick. With a tinge of professionalism, a dollop of hatchet and that little something else, the name was set. And it works on so many levels it seems just right.
So now, how about a logo?!? Oh no. Not another month…
No more dykes, please
Our valued head mechanic is putting the engine back together this weekend. Er, a.k.a. Aidan. The head’s been away to be skimmed and checked since we blew the head gasket in the Cork Forestry. Our woes started on SS3, Dereenaling, where we managed an excellent time just 1sec off fastest in the juniors. We should have had fastest, only for a slippery run to the flying finish and a giant dyke. Lo and behold, the dyke proved too tempting and we just had to have a look.
Thankfully, due to a minor miracle, the heavy right Mulcahy boot and the power of V-Tec, we somehow managed to crawl along the dyke and up the ditch behind the timing car, with barely a scratch on the car. However, despite the minor cosmetic damage, there was a bigger problem: Our wash bottle was dead.
We made it through SS4 and back to service pretty much unscathed, and even got the wash bottle back to the land of the living. Unfortunately however, the damage was done, and the minor miracle that got us out of the dyke on SS3 had taken its’ toll. The head gasket could take no more revving and we started losing water and overheating. We tried to battle on, thinking it was a rad problem, but unfortunately by the end of SS7 our rally was over.
So now, It’s time to start getting the car back together so she can take plenty more abuse next year. The first round of the championship is in Tipperary in February, so we’ll be launching our championship officially in January, just as soon as the car’s rebuilt, resprayed and liveried up with our sponsors.
Stay tuned!!!
Welcome to shedsport.com!
Hi, and welcome to the first post in the run-up to the 2008 National Forestry Championship. I’ll be documenting the run-in to the championship, in which Aidan Mulcahy (driver) and myself, Des Flynn (navigator) will be contesting the Junior class in a 1600 Civic.
We plan to launch our championship fully in early January, however in the meantime, I’ll be keeping you up to date on the preperation and rebuild of the car.
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