Seventh Heaven for Vincent and JP McAree on Mitchelstown Forestry Rally
Last weekend’s Mitchelstown Forestry Rally, round one of the Petro Systems Irish Forestry Rally Championship brought a superb seventh overall finish for Monaghan’s Vincent and JP McAree, on their first outing in a Group N Subaru Impreza. For 23 year old Vincent McAree and his co-driving cousin JP it was the first of two prize drives which they won after winning the junior section of the Irish Forestry series in 2009.
The car, a full specification 1999 Group N Subaru was provided by Galway man Daragh Raftery, with his hard working crew looking after the car. “I had a few miles in the car the day before the event, just to get a basic feel for it” commented Vincent.
“When we got going on the event I started to get the feel of it more. The four wheel drive in the forest was just unreal! It took us a while to appreciate how much extra speed you could carry through the corners with a Group N car, and towards the end of the event we started to get onto it more and more. We made an adjustment to soften the back of the car at the mid day service as well, which helped me to get the car to step put more, as we don’t have a handbrake for the tight junctions. I have to say we really enjoyed the event, and by the last stage I felt we were getting a better pace up with the experience we had gained.” Indeed a seventh fastest overall time on the final test, consolidated their seventh overall position, and the team was delighted to record a top ten finish on their first attempt. “I have to thank Daragh, his son and the team. They were really pleased to see the car running in the top ten, took the job of running the car seriously and had prepared the car well for the rally also. Also thanks to Jim Crozier of Sunoco Fuels for the fuel for the event, Christy Carey of Hankook for providing the tyres, Motorsport Ireland for insuring the car, and of course John Quill and everyone who runs this series.”
Round two of the Irish Forestry series is in Carrick On-Suir in three weeks time, and this will be Vincent’s second prize drive in the Group N Subaru. “I think we will have more experience going into this rally and I have to say I’m really looking forward to it. After this event I would like to continue in the Group N class, so we are looking into preparing a Group N Mitsubishi Evo 9 for the rest of the series also.” Vincent and his cousin JP are hoping for continued backing from V-Mac Silos, T-Met Recycling and Premier Welding for the rest of the season that is seeing the young Monaghan engineer graduate into much more powerful machinery.
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