Men and motors

OFF THE ROAD Paul McGuinness and Martin Cawley from Killala in their Corolla get a dig-out from some spectators at the Mayo Stages Rally 2007 last weekend.  Pic: Michael McLaughlin

Men and motors

FEATURE

Daniel Carey

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Saturday: Rallying together

THERE is, it must be admitted, a certain irony in using public transport to attend the Mayo Stages Rally. Still, a piece of graffiti provided one moment of comic relief en route. ‘Tara loves Daniel’, read the message on one bus seat, though it seemed unlikely that the message was directed at yours truly. For one thing, the only person in the vicinity was a man in his mid-50s, and he had fallen asleep.

Bob Kelly’s love of motorsport is unmistakable. The Cork co-driver suffered serious injuries after crashing in the first stage of last year’s event. His account of the incident and its aftermath was harrowing and uplifting in equal measure.

“For about five weeks I was in a complete dream,” recalls Kelly, whose car landed on a tree stump. “I did not know what had happened to me; where I was, why I was there, and I feared I was locked up. I did not know my wife or family and my memory came and went. My left side was badly damaged, my head hurt and I was so confused. When I began to come around, I pleaded wife my wife to help me escape!

“The Mayo [& District Motorsport] Club looked after my family so well that I can never thank them enough. The TF Royal Hotel gave us a room for the whole time I was in the hospital. Several club members came day after day to see me and talk to my family. Bit by bit, the mind came back, the body began to heal and my kidneys began to function again.”

Kelly finally left Castlebar for two hospitals down south before eventually being allowed home in a wheelchair. He remembers trying to lift his leg ‘even one inch off the bed’, eventually progressed to a Zimmer frame and from then advanced onto crutches. Now on the mend, he donated a cup for the best rear wheel driver as a ‘thank you to the Mayo club and a farewell to the sport I loved so well’. Oh, and he’s organising a rally in Skibbereen next month!

Sunday morning: Engines on

WHEN Dougie Hughes began his career as a rally MC, Mayo were the reigning All-Ireland senior football champions. The Galway native is now in his 55th year of continuous motorsport broadcasting. Hughes, whose is depicted in caricature on his new van, will take in 60 events over 51 weekends during 2007. And the drivers think they have it rough!

Despite the drizzle and the early hour, Dougie was the most enthusiastic individual in Mayo at 8.30am on Sunday. The 70-something commentator introduced Tyrone man Glenn Allen as ‘the bridesmaid of rallying’ – a brave assertion given that he said it while situated directly in front of Allen’s Corolla! Perhaps Mayo will land Sam when he finally retires …

Mayo County Council Safety Officer Noel Gibbons, who flagged off the first car, said he hoped the event would be memorable ‘for the right reasons’. He requested that supporters adhere to the rules of the road and drive carefully, concluding that ‘speed is for the competitors’.

With demand for accommodation sky high, news of overnight disturbances involving boy racers drew a wry comment from one young local woman. “You wouldn’t need to book a B&B if you caused trouble,” she noted. Perhaps unsure of her audience, she asked one man: “Are you a guard?” and received the cryptic reply: “As good as!” Perhaps Swinford’s Wikipedia-inspired militia (to protect against the werewolves said to be rampant there) has spawned a real-life equivalent in Castlebar.

Sunday evening: They think it’s all over …

COMMENTING last year on the possibility of avian flu in Ireland, the satirist Newton Emerson had a warning for Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan: “It only takes one determined bustard to cause absolute chaos, as anyone in Fianna Fail really ought to know”. There were, in fact, two Bustards in Sunday’s event, Trevor and Kenny Bustard from Donegal. Still, though Weatherdial’s prediction that Sunday would be ‘cloudy and wet’ proved accurate, there was little mayhem to report from the course.

“There were some small offs but no major incidents, so we’re happy,” said Clerk of the Course Jonathan Rice. “We had a great day out. There was a good crowd on every corner and the safety campaign has travelled the country at this stage. The ‘recce’ was brilliant on Saturday and there was a good reaction to the route. The top three guys thought it was a good, challenging course with a mixture of everything in it.”