Tierworker duo rule the Border

The Tierworker crew of Thomas Carolan and Declan Smith won the Border Rally Championship with a tough drive to class nine success on the Donegal Harvest Stages rally. Typical of the north west, it started damp and cleared up by the time the Escort MkII drivers got to the first stage, where they decided they'd be a bit cautious. "We were happy enough with the time and started pushing on stage two," said Carolan, who ended up battling James Greenan / Danny McCloskey for class honours, although the Donegal duo were seeded much lower than the Cavan men, making it difficult to keep an eye on their times. "He took 20s out of us on the first stage, but we took a lump back on two and were ahead again on three." On stage four the Tierworker duo were 30s quicker than their previous run, but lost the benefit of it when the lower crews got a notional time following a crash that blocked the stage. They were still pushing hard, and went half a minute quicker than before on stage five and got to service some 90s ahead of their class rivals. The cushion was useful as Mark Smith and Gerry Buckley of M&S Motorsport discovered the tube on the back axle was broken. They welded it up and warned the lads "to take it handy and bring it home". They followed instructions and dropped two seconds on stage seven, but then the service crew rang to say they were then 23s behind Greenan/McCloskey. "There was no worrying about the axle at that stage, it was all or nothing," said Carolan, and he proved it by going 31s quicker on stage eight than the earlier run over it. "The last stage was long straights and then last few miles were tight, we had five or six seconds (over their earlier time), there was nothing left in it." The mechanics had tried to contact them to say they had regained the class lead, but they didn't see the message until after stage nine and their time there was 14s quicker than Greenan's. It was enough to seal the championship title. Carolan and Smith were second in class in Mayo despite a misfiring engine, won in Monaghan and Cavan, and were second in Newry & Mourne, although "for that you need to have the car set up for short sprints and hills". They started rallying in 2004 when they bought their MkII Escort in Autotrader and upgraded it. Last year they won their class in the Border, National and Midlands championships. Next season they will probably defend their Border title and hope to do the Galway International, as the last time out there their engine blew up while they were 19th overall on the national section.