Marty McCormack Ready For The Ulster Rally.

Marty McCormack and the Tiger Risk Rally Team return to the British Rally Championship for this weekend’s Ulster Rally. Marty was absent from the last two rounds of the championship, the Scottish Rally & the Nicky Grist stages after breaking his wrist, but he is really looking forward to returning to the stages.

“I can’t wait to get back behind the wheel of the Tiger Risk Skoda! It was very difficult to miss the last two rounds of the championship but it had to be done.”

After some rest and recuperation, Marty is now feeling better than ever before and wants to get back to where he left off. The championship returns to its first full tarmac round since the Circuit of Ireland in April where Marty almost clinched his first BRC victory, only for it to be cruelly taken away by a mechanical issue. “I am delighted to be back on tarmac again, after the run we had at The Circuit, there are a lot of positives to take from it and myself and David are hoping to bring that pace to the Ulster and be able to challenge for top points.”

The team has had a torrid time in the championship thus far, starting in February at the Mid Wales Stages Rally, where the rally ended before it even started, “We were on our way to the first stage of the event when the front diff broke. That was hard to take after the build up to the first event of the year, to not even get a stage was very tough.”

Next up was the Circuit of Ireland, possibly one of Marty’s finest drives ever! He got the best out of the car, dicing at the top of the field for the entire event. Entering the final few stages of the event it looked like Marty was going to claim his maiden British Rally Championship win “It was all going so good! We were leading the BRC crews which was unbelievable and with 5 stages to go all we had to do was bring the car home and do nothing foolish, but on stage 10 the fuel pump let go and we ground to a halt at the side of the road. It was truly gutting!”

Things went better at the Pirelli Carlisle Rally with Marty claiming his first points of the season with a 5th place overall. The extremely fast nature of the stages hampered the team progress, as they suited the newer, turbo, R5 specification cars more. Following this things took a turn for the better, as Marty, with his niece Caron on the pacenotes, won their local Tour of the Sperrins Rally. Marty put in a valiant drive to claim victory ahead of stiff competition. Spirts were high heading to the next rally, the Kenotek Ypres Rally in Belgium- one of Martys favorite events. After finishing a superb 8th overall in last years rally, expectations were high, but 2016 was not to be. Marty broke his wrist prior to the event and did not start the rally. Wrist now healed, Marty is ready to get back behind the wheel and tackle the Ulster Rally.

With a capacity entry and over 25 R5/S2000 cars it promises to be one of the most hotly contested rounds of the BRC. You can keep up to date with Marty on Twitter @martymccormack and Facebook.com/marty.mccormack1. Marty is competing this season with the support of Tiger Risk Partners and P McCormack and Sons Ltd.

Photo: Fergus McAnallen // rallyretro.com