Ready for road

Leading Mayo competitors all set for Rally Ireland

PREVIEW
Cathal Doyle

THE Black Road. A twisty sinuous piece of tarmac, it wields its way south of the town of Loughrea in Co. Galway through farmland before climbing into the lower reaches of Slieve Aughty mountains. Fast and flowing in parts, narrow and bumpy in others, it’s a road that fully deserves its rather foreboding moniker.
Regularly used as a rally stage over the years, in August 2007 it was the fifth stage of the Galway Summer Stages Rally. And it was here that Mayo & District Motorsport Club members Aaron MacHale and Killian Duffy firmly put down their markers as having arrived among the elite of Irish rally competitors.
Going into the rally, the eighth round of the ten event Dunlop National Rally Championship. Aaron was on the verge of clinching the overall title after a series of four successive wins. Having only teamed up with Aaron from the fourth round, Killian still needed at least one more event before he could claim the co-driver’s title, so for both crew members, finishing was the priority in Galway. Adding complication to the situation was that in addition to the National Championship regulars, the Galway rally had received entries from two visitors from the Tarmac Championship, Eamonn Boland and Tim McNulty.
Aaron takes up the story. “The previous year I had lost a lot of time to Charlie Donnelly on this stage without really knowing why. So I sat down and studied the in-car video and realised there were lots of places where I wasn’t as committed as I could be. So we decided to give it a bit of a cut this year”.
A bit of a cut indeed. Five seconds faster than McNulty, and a full ten quicker than the rest of the field, it proved that the Mayo duo had the sheer speed as well as the reliability to compete with the best in the country. Point proven, Aaron duly claimed his championship title at the end of the event, while two weeks later in Clare, Killian added the co-driver’s title.
Perhaps most surprising is why it took this pair so long to team up together. For not only are they successful competitors in the car, they are good friends out of it. Come next June, that bond will be even closer when Aaron weds Killian’s sister Grainne.
Both have grown up around the world of motorsport. Aaron is the son of one of Ireland’s most successful rally drivers ever, five times Tarmac Champion Austin, a native of Louisburgh. Killian meanwhile is the son of John, long time secretary of Mayo & District Motorsport Club, and a regular competitor in his own right.
Both started competing in 1999 and were not long in tasting success. Aaron won the Group N category of the National Championship in 2002, and was a leading competitor in the tarmac series for a couple of years. Killian narrowly missed out on winning the Border Championship with James McGreal from Foxford in 2000, and since then has built up a wealth of experience competing in many international events overseas particularly in the Middle East.
This week sees the Mayo crew venture into new territory once again as they compete on Rally Ireland, their first World Championship event. “We can’t wait to go” says Killian. “We’ve prepared really well, and everything is in top order”. So where do they hope to finish? “Realistically if we finish in the top fifteen that would be a fantastic success” says Aaron. “We’d like to be exchanging times with some of the leading Irish drivers”.
Two of which will have special resonance with Aaron. In what is believed to be a world first, no fewer than three of the MacHale clan will start Rally Ireland – all competing in Ford Focus World Rally Cars. Aaron’s brother Gareth is anticipated to be one of the top Irish competitors, while Austin, although not competing regularly these days, is still more than capable of beating many of his younger rivals on the day. A highlight will be the opening super-special stage from Stormont Castle on Thursday evening where competitors take to the track two at a time. Seeded next to each other, Austin and Aaron are scheduled to go head to head. It promises to be some spectacle.
So what are the plans for the future for these successful competitors? “We’ll probably do some selected events early in the year including the Galway International and the Mayo Stages Rally” says Aaron. “After that we’ll assess the situation for the rest of the year”. 
Whatever direction they take, these Mayo competitors look set to build on their remarkably successful careers to date. If you’re out spectating on Rally Ireland this week-end be sure to give them a wave.