So as you all know, I’ve spent that last few weeks having a bit of work done on the car before heading back out last weekend for the Wexford Hillclimb. Little did I know how last minute it would be, and with only getting the car back late Friday evening, I was left in the position of being unable to have any real test drive before the event. Saturday morning saw all drivers facing into a wet and slippery hill, and this on top of the new engine, led to a challenging day out for me. With one practice run to get myself acquainted with the car, I found I spent the day struggling to carry speed into a lot of the bends, having too heavy a foot as far as the brake pedal was concerned! Ultimately I was unable to gain any time on the day, with my first timed run being my fastest, and this was enough to see me finish up 5th in class on the day. Sunday morning saw us heading out on a much drier hill, and I headed out on the practice run feeling a lot more confident in the car following the previous days driving. However coming to the end of the practice run, I ran in to some trouble, with the car losing almost all power on the final bend. This was quickly fixed up in service however, and thankfully a loose accelerator cable was the source of the problem. At this stage I must say thanks to William Power for spotting the problem and getting it fixed so promptly for me!! With the car sorted, I headed out for the first timed run, shaving over a second off of the previous days fastest time. We managed to get a total of five timed runs on Sunday, and with my confidence growing, I found myself knocking time off on almost every run. I rounded off the day holding on to my 5th in class, and over 2.4 seconds up on my fastest run from Saturday. Overall it was a very enjoyable weekend, and many thanks must go to COC Brendan Harpur and his team. I now have definite plans to be back out on the stages in May for the Carlow Stages Rally, where I will be contesting my first round of this year’s South East Stages Championship, and hoping to pick up some more speed, and ultimately a good result over the weekend! Until next time! Tonya
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Tonya Fortune: The first event of the year!
