Mexico Preview

Old Dog, New Tricks for MacHale World Rally Team

Ireland’s leading World Rally Championship (WRC) contender, Gareth MacHale, will have a new team mate this weekend on Rally Mexico; his father, Austin.

“I’m delighted to be back in Mexico.  It obviously has a special place in my heart after last year” said Gareth.

It was at Rally Mexico in 2006 that Gareth and co-driver Paul Nagle scored Ireland’s first World Championship points in over twenty years with a stunning sixth place finish, and they will be aiming to better that performance this year in his new 2006 Ford Focus WRC.  Austin MacHale will be partnered by long-time co-driver Brian Murphy.

Austin MacHale commented that whilst it was more traditional for the son to inherit the father’s car, he was looking forward to getting behind the wheel of the 2003 Ford Focus WRC that performed so well on the event last year.  “As the saying goes,” he joked, “It’s the old dog for the hard road and the pup for the path.”

The event covering a total distance of 850 km, is based in León, 400km north of Mexico City.  It is the highest round in the WRC series, with the opening day's Ortega test climbing through cacti-filled mountains to a breathtaking 2737 metres.  It begins on Thursday evening with a ceremonial start in Guanajuato, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, which last year drew almost 60,000 fans.  The town is famed for its beauty and underground network of roads.

It may have the shortest route of any World Rally Championship event, but there will be no shortage of action at Rally Mexico this weekend.

DAY ONE

After the first leg of Rally Mexico this weekend, Irish father and son team Gareth and Austin MacHale are sitting in an excellent 9th and 12th place in the overall standings.  Despite going off road on the first leg, Gareth and co-driver Paul Nagle were able to get their 2006 Ford Focus WRC back on course and finish the day's eight special stages.
 
Also going off road and rolling his car on the same stage was Norwegian driver Henning Soldberg in his Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Focus.  His times have dropped him outside of the top ten and out of contention for a podium finish.  His brother Petter Soldberg whose new 2007-spec Subaru Impreza was making it's debut this weekend, suffered an oil loss on the road section before the sixth stage and stopped, unable to continue.
 
Starting the second stage, the leader board is current Champion, France's Sebastian Loeb in the Citroen C4 leading the pack ahead of Chris Atkinson's Subaru with BP Ford's Mikko Hirvonnen rounding out the top three.  Today's action sees competitors take in eight more special stages high in the mountains north of Mexico City, with the event's final six stages taking place on Sunday morning.

FINAL DAY

It was a run of bad luck for the MacHale World Rally Team on Rally Mexico this weekend as both Austin and Gareth MacHale failed to finish.
 
Gareth and co-driver Paul Nagle broke a track arm on a rock on Special Stage 13 and were forced to retire.  It was a disappointing blow for the pair, who had been sitting in ninth place until then.  Austin MacHale and co-driver Brian Murphy suffered rear suspension problems on the second test of the final day and were also forced to retire. 
 
Gareth was in positive mood, however.  "That's rallying.  We were in ninth position, targetting a WRC points finish when we hit the rock.  The car was handling well and we'd been running a great event and were happy with the set-up.  You just can't know what you're going to encounter on the road.  We're settling in well with the car and as the year progresses, we're aiming high"
 
Reigning World Rally Champion Sebastian Loeb, was back on song in this weekend.  After a disastrous event in Norway two weeks ago where he failed to pick up any points, Loeb showed the form that has secured him the driver's championship three years running by finishing almost a minute in front of Finland's Marcus Grohnholm in his BP Ford Focus.  Mikko Hivonen, also of BP Ford, took third.
 
Gareth and Paul are preparing for Rally Portugal in two weeks time and will hope that the luck of the Irish is with them on that event.