Second Citroen Racing Trophy Victory for Mark Donnelly On the Circuit of Ireland
For 18 year old Omagh rally driver Mark Donnelly it’s been a fabulous two weeks, as he contests both the Citroen Racing Trophy UK and Irish Championships this year with his Citroen C2. A victory on last weekend’s Circuit of Ireland, round two of the Irish series, came just one week after victory on the Bulldog International forest event in Wales, and with €5000 prize money from Citroen Racing for each round win, young Mark is understandably delighted. “It’s been a great couple of weeks for sure, and Robbie McGurk and the boys have done a great job in getting the car turned around from gravel to tarmac specification in one week. We were lucky at the weekend on the Circuit of Ireland, the result kind of fell for us towards the end, but that’s the way rallying goes.”
The Circuit of Ireland event this year was over two tough days, with the first night featuring a really challenging 18 mile night time stage, a stage which considerably changed the rally results sheets. For Mark and co-driver Paddy Robinson the event began steadily but rapidly, lying fourth of the C2’s after stage 2, before moving up to third after stage 4. Rain belted down for the late afternoon loop, but after six stages Mark was 36 seconds off the lead in third, and just seven seconds behind second placed Robert Barrable. The C2 was running well, but in rallying improvements can always be made. “We had tested the car on the Mayo event, and I felt I had a good set up, but the muddier, bumpier roads on the Circuit were slightly different, and I need to make some more improvements to the handling. It’s a good car in fact that we are learning more and more about how to fine tune the suspension, which will hopefully help me in the future to understand how to make rally cars work better.”
The final loop of three stages on day plunged the crews into darkness and the dramas really began, even for Mark! “The 18 mile night stage wasn’t easy! There was a lot of mud on the road and we got caught out on a tight left hand bend. I thought I had backed off plenty for it, but the back end of the car came around and we spun, and clipped a bank. It bent the rear suspension in the car, and we crawled out of the stage, and lost quite a bit of time. Robbie and the Motor Sport Service Team did a great job however and replaced the whole rear suspension in the next morning’s service.” The long night time test had claimed second placed Robert Barrable, which let Mark into second and pressure from behind was eased as Shane Buckley also had an excursion.
Mark started day two’s six stages, 2 minutes 51 seconds behind C2 leader Martin McCormack. “Really in this position all we could do was to hold onto second place, and we had a comfortable buffer to third. Then on the third last stage we passed Marty who was on three wheels! I thought he was out of the rally and we cruised through the final two stages. We were struggling ourselves at this stage too. The oil pressure warning light was flickering on and off under heavy braking and acceleration, so we had to back off to preserve the engine. It was very close in the end, just 5 seconds, and if I had known Marty had got the car repaired again I would have revved the engine a bit harder! “
So at the Newry town hall finish Mark celebrated his second Citroen Racing Trophy win in two weeks. It’s a result that moves him into joint second place in the series with the next round in Killarney in May, but the next event for the team is the forthcoming British C2 round, the Pirelli Rally in Carlisle.
Photo by: Roy Dempster
Add our news to your Google homepage!
Add our news to your My Yahoo! homepage!
Subscribe to our RSS news feed
