The Tiger Roars into Kerry as McCormack prepares for the Circuit. – Motorsport.ie

Marty McCormack, along with navigator David Moynihan, had an extremely successful Circuit of Ireland shakedown at the Circuit of Kerry Rally last weekend. The Tralee based event served as the perfect testing ground for this weeks iconic Circuit of Ireland rally. With seven stages totaling over 70 miles it was the perfect place for Marty and David to get re-acquainted with the TigerRisk Skoda Fabia on tarmac. It has been over eight months since Marty drove a rally car on a sealed surface, his last tarmac outing was on the vastly different roads of Rally Deutschland.

Stage 1 of the Circuit of Kerry Rally was a tough nine-mile test; Marty completed the stage 6th fastest over-
all, only beaten by the World Rally cars. By the time the cars had returned to morning service Marty held 6th overall, after achieving some top 4 times. He commented at service “It has been a good 3 stages, David and I are working really well together and McGeehan Motorsport have the Fabia working brilliantly!” The next loop of stages was a repeat of the morning’s ones. Marty put in a series of good times including a 3rd fastest on stage 5. When he clocked into the final service the timesheet showed the TigerRisk machine had moved up to 5th overall. With only one stage remaining it looked promising for a top 4 finish!

After a thorough check in service the Skoda was ready to go, Marty and David blasted into the final stage trying to push the car to eke out every tenth of a second. Unfortunately, this was all in vain as they were held up at the scene of an accident losing them considerable time. The TigerRisk car crossed the finish ramp in Tralee in 6th place overall, a mere 5 seconds away from 4th. Marty was still very happy with the day’s rallying “ We had a great day today, the car ran faultlessly and we showed our pace against the quicker World Rally Cars, but most importantly we have gained great confidence ahead of the Circuit of Ireland”

Marty and David now head to Belfast for the reconnaissance of the Circuit. Over the two-day recce they will get a feel for the stages, making and perfecting their pacenotes. Marty has competed on the event a num-
ber of times before, including last year where he finished 12th after brake issues and a puncture dropped him out of contention. The team are hoping for a much better result this year, keeping in line with Marty’s talent!

Over the rally you can keep up to date with Marty’s progress on his Twitter and Facebook accounts:

@martymccormack and Facebook.com/marty.mccormack1.

Marty is competing this season with the support of Tiger Risk Partners and P McCormack and Sons Ltd.