British & Irish Championships 2024

[satnav]

I haven't seen this on here so i thought i'd let you all know how some fellow competitors behaved towards marshals at this years West Cork Rally ;

Sitting on 15th May 2024
David Munro (Chair), Nicky Moffitt, John Hopwood
Case No: J2024-8
Disciplinary Panel
Eian Pritchard – Licence Number: 41246
Jamie Champkin appeared on behalf of Motorsport UK.
Eian Pritchard did not appear and was not represented.
1. 1. Motorsport UK has brought disciplinary proceedings
against Eian Pritchard, a Motorsport UK Licence holder
who had attended the West Cork Rally as a spectator
together with his brother Kevin Pritchard and a friend,
Howard Davies.
2. An incident occurred during the second running of the
stage in Ring Village on 16th March 2024.
3. As a result of what occurred the matter was referred to
Motorsport UK by Motorsport Ireland.
4. Eian Pritchard was then summonsed to appear before the
National Court for breach of NCR C.1.1.4 and C.1.1.9.
5. The Court is satisfied to the appropriate standard that Eian
Pritchard participated in an incident which was prejudicial
to the interests of motorsport generally and that he was
involved in assaulting two Marshals, Ger Conroy and Sean
Keown.
6. The essential facts appear to be that Mr Pritchard had
been allowed to park his Toyota SUV in the driveway of
Barry’s Bar in Ring Village. Access to the driveway was from
a length of highway which was being used as an escape
road while the stage was live.
7. He was made aware of this and said that he would not be
leaving until the stage was closed at the end of the second
running.
8. At some point he changed his mind and, together with
his brother and Mr Davies, returned to the car with the
obvious intention of reversing it out of the driveway and
onto the escape road. Indeed, Mr Davies lifted a length of
red and white tape to allow the vehicle to be reversed.
9. The photographic evidence before the court plainly shows
that the vehicle had been reversed a short distance.
10. Unsurprisingly the two Marshals who were monitoring the
escape road became involved when they saw what was
happening.
11. Before the vehicle was actually moved, one of the
Marshals, Ger Conroy, had spoken to Mr Pritchard and
explained that he could not reverse into the escape road
and that the car should remain parked.
12. He was ignored, so he stood behind the Vehicle and on
two occasions banged his hands on the rear window.
13. Mr Pritchard got out of the driver’s seat and pushed
Mr Conroy away. Threats and obscenities were shouted
at Mr Conroy.
14. The second Marshal, Sean Keown, became involved when
Mr Pritchard returned to the car and started to get back
into the driver’s seat. Mr Keown was attempting to prevent
this from occurring when he was assaulted by Kevin
Pritchard and Eian Pritchard.
15. Mr Conroy sought to intervene and was punched and
grabbed to the face.
16. This was an unpleasant and wholly avoidable incident.
It has the appearance of joint enterprise by the Pritchard
brothers.
17. The Court is satisfied that Eian Pritchard was involved in
this fracas and therefore imposes a fine of £1,000.
18. The Court further orders that his Competition Licence
is suspended until 31st December 2024 with a further
suspension period of 12 months from that date, but that
further suspension is itself suspended subject to his
continuing good behaviour.
19. He is to pay the costs of £500.
David Munro, Chair
15th May 2024

[Sal yet again]

Really poor behaviour but maybe if the marshals had access to a radio the stage could have been stopped rather than them "getting involved". Interesting that with a bit of googling the main culprit was also involved in an alleged incident at his own business not long before. If that is the same HD I'm thinking of then he needs banning from representing rallying as a commentator for a year IMO

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Donegal to be pivotal to Cronin's 2024 Title challenge.

https://www.motorsportireland.com/Pu...view-2024.aspx

Others have more recent experience in Donegal but Cronin has two ITRC wins already on the board this year.

[Sal yet again]

Talking of Donegal was just watching footage of the 2019 event and poignant that 3 of the drivers featured are sadly no longer with us namely Craig Breen, Manus Kelly and Ken Block

[Fast Eddie WRC]

DirtFish to partner with Onthepacenote to bring further coverage of the remaining rounds of this year’s Irish Tarmac Rally Championship.

https://dirtfish.com/rally/dirtfish-...er-in-ireland/

On todays SPIN the Rally Pod they were just taking about a live podcast from Donegal next week. No mention of anything during the actual rally.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Meirion Evans is set to give the GR Yaris Rally2 its Irish debut on the Carlow Stages on the 18th May.

Meirion Evans is also doing Donegal in the Yaris Rally2. Will be interesting to see how he and the car goes against the established cars on the Irish tarmac.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Wow, and Callum Devine has switched to a new car for Donegal.. A Skoda Fabia RS Rally2!

[Sal yet again]

Interesting time to change car maybe the day of the Polo on Irish tar is over. With Cronin's pace in the latest Festa then maybe he has been having to over drive the VW.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Interesting time to change car maybe the day of the Polo on Irish tar is over. With Cronin's pace in the latest Festa then maybe he has been having to over drive the VW.

Devine said this morning that the Skoda just suddenly became available and they had to take it as they're quite hard to get hold of.

A short test was ok and the base tarmac set-up seems good and the engine stronger at the top end than the Polo.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Meirion Evans is also doing Donegal in the Yaris Rally2. Will be interesting to see how he and the car goes against the established cars on the Irish tarmac.

Meirion Evans was within 0.5s of stage-winner Matt Edwards on the opening Knockalla stage on Saturday. Encouraging.

Now fastest o/a on Day 2...