Clenched and ready for a title

Colm Brady insisted he wasn"t used to talking to the press when the Anglo-Celt rang him to discuss his success in the Midlands East Rally Championship, but he had no trouble coming out with a few quare ones! 'We were pushing to the absolute,' said Colm of the Oldcastle rally, where his Honda Civic was misfiring. 'Where it was missing you were keeping the shoe in and left foot braking, trying to get the max out of the car... we were taking some chances, there was some of them we were clenching the cheeks of our arses at times!' Colm and his co-driver Declan Brady (no relation) hadn"t done a lot of rallying before they entered the championship and got off to a late start as the first round, in Birr, was over-subscribed. But it didn"t matter too much as only the best five scores would count and they went on to record four maximums and a second throughout the season. 'So it started on the Midlands in spring,' said Colm. 'We lost it into a bale and put in a door on SS2 after, but we still went on to score maximum points because some of the other competitors in class 11 weren"t registered.' The two Bradys finished third in class and began a championship battle with Neil Pierce, who had scored on the first round. They were closer to home for the next round, the NE stages, and enjoyed a class win and 17th overall (Pierce finished second). Another maximum score came with second in class, behind Peter Wilson, on the ALMC. 'We had a moment on SS3,' said Colm, 'a big slide after hitting running water. That left us a bit hairy so we backed off because we were charging hard.' Pierce had an engine problem and retired but Mick Hagan was doing well in his class and James Cassidy was starting to come up the field too. 'Then we went to Oldcastle, near home soil. We had a misfire all day long and struggled to keep the pace up, but we still managed to finish 17th overall and got second in class. We got second championship points too, because Benny Kenny who won the class, was also registered.' The misfire was due to a fault in the wiring loom and once that was fixed the Civic was back on full song for the GSMC rally, the final round in the Japcars-sponsored series. The programme for that event carried an article about the championship going to the wire, with Hagan in front by two points, then the Bradys, and Cassidy two points behind. 'It was a very wet and slippy rally, again it about was holding on for dear life all day long,' said Colm. 'It was a matter of keeping a cool head to bring it home. James and I scored max points in our classes and the championship finished with use on 67 points, Cassidy and Hagan had 65 and Pierce had 63.' 'You"re competing against the lads in your own class but I had a good battle with James, we were swapping times - sometimes I beat him, sometimes he beat me.' Colm thanked Declan Brady 'for braving the passenger seat all year. There"s times I wanted to get out I don"t know how he braved it!'; Stephen Curran for doing a fine job preparing the car, the sponsors of Midland East championship and the Flynn family for the Ian O"Flynn Memorial Cup, and 'all the sponsors who supported us through the year'. What about next season then? 'If I can get some lad to give me money... No fixed plans yet, maybe have a go at the Exel championship and we will definitely try to defend the Midlands East title. It"s a great championship for clubmen and we"re happy to support it.'