I'm originally a city boy from Dublin but I now live in a small village called Gowran (pronounced Goran) which is probably best known in Ireland for its lovely race track, Gowran Park. Normally, the contestants are of the 1 horsepower variety but in July the Gowran Festival of Speed is going to be held there so the horsepower gathered together at the track will reach unprecedented levels. There's going to be a Formula 1 car doing demo runs and a large gathering of modern and historic rally cars including a number of Group B cars so it's something I'm really looking forward to.
On Friday evening last I was sent out to get some shopping and when I arrived home and got out of the car I could hear the scream of a number of cars and I could tell they were competition cars by the sound of the close ratio gear changing. So the groceries weren't even taken out of the car as I got straight back in to go investigate.
The race course is only a 1 minute drive down the road and as I approached with the windows down I could tell the that's where the racket was coming from so in I went and much to my delight this was the first thing I saw!
It was the official media launch of the upcoming festival and there were 4 cars giving demo runs. The Stratos, a Metro 6R4 an Opel Ascona and a lovely Mk1 Escort which is owned and regularly driven in historic rallies by Joe Connolly who also happens to be the Chairman of Gowran Park and and who is the driving force behind this event.
This is his Escort:
It doesn't look as dramatic as the Stratos but it is an animal to go and I made sure I blagged a couple of laps with Joe. So there I was thinking I was just going out for a bit of shopping and then to sit in and have a quiet night with a nice bottle of wine and all of a sudden there I am in the passenger seat of a rally car topping out at 105 mph along a very narrow piece of tarmac circulating a horse racing track with its BDG engine screaming up to 9,000 rpm! It just couldn't get any better than that.
The lads were taking footage all the time so they said they'd send me the video of my run but in the meantime here's a video taken by a guy who went out with Joe earlier in the evening.
I was the last out so we packed the car away and headed into the bar for a drink and a chat with all the gathered petrolheads so it was a nice unexpected surprise which was only interrupted when my wife rang me to ask where the hell I was!
But the racing keeps me coming back, despite the fact that I never win.
