It has been a long time since we thought about a stage on Sally Gap. This classic old Circuit of Ireland test is firmly entrenched in rallying folklore. Tales of Coleman and McHale, McRea and Vatanen, Fisher and McHale (again) fighting the bit out over the Wicklow mountains are still told at motor club dinners on a regular basis. Things change though, and for various reasons, Sally Gap hasn’t ran as a special stage since the 1990’s.
That is all about to change, when Tour Ireland comes to visit in the middle of May. This year’s event is an extension of the classic car race/rally/regularity – Tour Brittania, an event that combines the thrill of the racetrack with the skill of the rally special stage, not forgetting that there is also the discipline of the regularity event.
The crews in the competition section of Tour Ireland will tackle four special stages over parts of the “Sally Gap” having travelled from Wales that morning. After a night spent at the Powerscourt Hotel the crews will then head to Mondello to do a couple of races before heading back to Wales on the ferry.
Above is a small sample of the final Sally Gap stage, and the main reason it has been posted is to allow the competitors to familiarise themselves with the video format. Many of the crews are new to special stages and the use of safety notes, so this is a little help for them.

More information on Tour Ireland is available at the Tour Brittania website www.tourbritannia.com

For competitors who would like purchase Tour Ireland Subjective Route Notes – Click Here

Tour of the Sperrins Notes and DVD are now available for posting out ahead of the first recce this Sunday.

Notes & DVD can be ordered online for posting or collection at this link

Our new video on demand service is also now online for this rally as can be seen below, while still have our traditional PC/Mac download online at this link.

Tour of the Sperrins 2015 – Trailer from Michael Patterson on Vimeo.

Carlow Stages 2015 – Patterson Pacenotes are made and the Notes & DVD are now ready for pre-event despatch. The rally has picked three very demanding stages close to Kilkenny. It has been at ten years since parts of the stages had been previously used and even then, it was in the opposite direction. Features include some high speed fast sections intermingled with more technical narrow roads all with the usual Carlow tarmac, that when wet, can prove very tricky.

Notes & DVD can be ordered online by following this Link

Our traditional DVD Download for PC/Mac can be found here

The 2015 Carlow Stages – Jemba generated speed trace. Click to enlarge image

Patterson Pacenotes – Video of the week – Gary McPhilips/Paul Sheridan.

SS 4 Monaghan Stages 2015 – Gary McPhilips and Paul Sheridan had led a fantastically close fought battle  for the top 2wd car on this very popular and well supported event. Unfortunately for the local crew, their MK2 Escort coasted to halt within sight of the finish of the final stage with engine problems. Our video of the week shows the Escort crew pushing to the limit, but at the same time, they are always under control and areutiltising their Patterson Pacenotes to the maximum.

Credits:

HD Incar Camera hired from BlackMotorsport IncarCameras

To book a camera contact 0044 (0)7938787344

For the rally world it is once again a very busy weekend. With the World Rally Championship in Argentina keeping the WRC fans happy, at home in the British Isles we have a fairly packed schedule. In the north of England the Pirelli Carlisle Rally has reformatted itself as a round of the British Historic Rally Championship and now encompasses a more compact route in the challenging forests of Kielder. On the island of Ireland, Saturday sees a a single stage event on the border of County Donegal and Northern Ireland, where Maiden City Motor Club are holding a closed road version of their Lark in the Park. Sunday sees the resumption of the Triton Showers National Rally Championship with the Monaghan Stages Rally. Below we have the Jemba Speed Traces for both the Pirelli and the Lark in the Park. We hope you enjoy.

A bird eye view of the Lark in the Park closed road stage just inside Co Donegal.

Lark in the Park Road Stage

Pirelli GE Files

Remember though. The Google Earth files are contained in a zip file. If you are using a computer, they will be downloaded to your downloads folder and can then be opened with Google Earth. For mobile/iPhone/iPad users – you will be asked to “open in” an app like iFiles or Evernote etc. You must do this and then unzip the files. After this the files can be opened in Google Earth. It seems a long way around but it is worth it. It is assumed that you have installed both a file viewer & Google Earth beforehand. If not they are all available via the App Store and the Android Play Store.