St Patricks' weekend brought both good and bad for Martin McCormack and his Cork co-driver Liam Moynihan at the 1st two rounds of the Irish C2 R2 Cup.

The West Cork Rally based in Clonakilty was to be a double header with both days rallying counting as individual rounds of the Irish C2 R2 Cup.

Martin and Liam started the event as their 1st in the C2 R2 and with having no previous experience in the car the main objective was to get through the 1st day and see how they got on. After 4 stages the crew were pleasantly surprised to be leading the C2 R2 cup runners and were looking forward to the remaining stages of the day as the weather was steadily improving. After 2 more stages the crew returned to service having dropped time to Barry Evans but still holding an 11 second lead. The crew decided to make adjustments to their suspension settings in service which resulted in them increasing their lead to 38 seconds over the final Saturday stages to win the 1st round of the Championship.

Sunday dawned wet and with another 9 stages ahead for the crew. They arrived into service with after 4 stages with a slender lead, and Martin Tynan hot on their heels. A new tyre choice and they headed out for 2 more stages, the 1st of which saw them increase their lead to 6 seconds but on stage 14 it all went wrong. A brake failure resulted in Marty having to pull the handbrake whilst flat in 3rd gear. The resulting minimal damage to the front of the C2 would not have been enough to put them out of the rally but with a broken steering arm the crew were unable to continue.

Marty was disappointed for the event to finish in this way but took great encouragement with the performance of the car and said " I need more time in the car to come to grip with the car in the slower, tighter sections of the stages, but overall I'm impressed with the car and looking forward to the Pirelli Rally in April"

The team would like to thank Outdoor Services, Carella Worktops, Ace Fixings, TFR Refrigeration, Millars Oils, John Moynihan Rallying, Scott Hire Garvagh and the Fisher Foundation for their continued support.

www.martymccormack.com