Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy Development Day
Academy see “Eye to Eye” with mentors
After thirteen months of remote tuition and assessment, members of the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy finally got the chance to come face to face with their mentors on Tuesday last, albeit socially distant thanks to the facilities on offer in Mondello Park.
Speaking after the day, Rally Academy Co-ordinator Sean McHugh said “After many months of Zoom meetings, It was great to get everyone together under the one roof, a lot of hard work has continued behind the scenes, adapting to the conditions that presented to us and keeping the Academy members focused on their fitness both physical and mentally, and offering them access to resources as they strive to be the best they can be – in and out off a rally car.”
As members assembled into small groups, world class high performance coach Alan Heary opened the day before they were assessed by Dr. Hugh Byrne and Mark McGroarty from Human Centred Movement while Kate McDaid, performance nutritionist and founder of NutriKate spoke about health, performance and body composition goals. Niall Maher co-founder of Digital Motorsports unveiled, exclusively to Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy members, a drivable version of the digital adaptation of the famous Rally of the Lakes stage Moll’s Gap, lots of very positive feedback was noted as drivers climbed up past Ladies View and along the shores of Muckross Lake. Also during the day, marketing guru Leo Nulty was on hand to offer advice to Academy members.
Speaking ahead of next week’s FIA World Rally Championship event, Ypres Rally in Belgium; Rally Academy member and current Hyundai Motorsport Customer Racing driver Josh McErlean was full of praise for the development day “I`m indebted to the Academy for their unrivalled support of my career, to have what the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy offers behind me is phenomenal”.
Another academy member also making the trip to the Belgium WRC debut event, which has attracted the biggest entry for a WRC event in almost six years, is William Creighton. The 23 year old FIA Junior Rally driver noted after the day in Mondello how helpful the advice given is towards building his confidence in the M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally4.
Equally as prepared for the Grampian Forest Rally, round three of the British Rally Championship which roars into action in north east Scotland the same weekend as Ypres rally, are eight other members of the Academy; James Wilson, Brian Brady, David Kelly, Eamonn Creedon, Dylan Doonan, Conor Mohan, Grace O’Brien and Dean O’Sullivan, all striving for success on the rallying scene.
The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy is funded by the Team Ireland Foundation through the support by philanthropist and 1982 Irish Tarmac champion, John Coyne. John is passionate about giving the next generation an opportunity to succeed in the sport he has enjoyed throughout his life.
