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.

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

Here’s the full ss3 in-car from the weekend. Apologies about the intermittent camera blackouts!!!

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

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.

* 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

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.

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