Dean Martin - Get My Drift...

Having watched him put on a spectacular display during the recent Retromania event at Mondello Park I thought it would a good idea to catch up with Dean as he prepares for the next event in his 2019 season. Round 4 of the Drift Games Extreme Championship takes place this weekend at the Irish Motorsport Festival in Punchestown and Dean will be competing in his faithful E36 BMW M3.

This is his 5th season competing in the drifting, having spent the first 2 competing in the NI Drift AMA Championship. He is full of praise for the organisers and fellow competitors who gave him a great grounding in the sport with plenty of advice and support to allow him to continually improve his skills.

After talking to him for 5 minutes it's quite obvious that he is totally committed to the sport with every spare hour and cent spent on having the car running as smoothly as possible for the high-speed blasts around the very demanding courses. He acknowledges that it wouldn't be possible for him to compete at the highest level in Ireland without the support and help of his family, friends and sponsors

He started competing with a BMW 323 ( Type E36 ) in 2014 in fairly bog-standard spec. The first big change to the car was when the engine was replaced with an M3 Evolution unit. He made various changes to that car over the next 2 years before he made the decision to reshell it into a 1997 M3 shell.

19/05/19 - Whiteriver Park 24 hour Kart Race

A few shots from a short visit to Whiteriver Park for the 24 Hour Karting Series race that was held over the weekend. This is the 2nd of these events that was ran by Whiteriver and it attracted some continental teams over this time around.

1994 Carling Rally of the Lakes

The upcoming Cartell Rally of the Lakes next weekend prompted me to upload these photos from the 1994 Carling Rally of the Lakes. Yep, 25 years ago boys and girls.

It was a fantastic weekend for the sport but the world of motorsport was rocked by the accidents in Imola that weekend that claimed the lives of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna da Silva.

Check out more of my rallying posts here Rallying Albums

13/04/19 - Croft HillClimb

It was well worth the spin up to the Croft Hillclimb, which was the first round of the 2019 Miller Oils ANICC Hillclimb Championship.
This RS1800 was absolutely immaculate.

1994 West Cork Rally

We enjoyed some great trips down to West Cork in the early 90s for the West Cork  Rally. Here's my photos with from the 1994 event. It's hard to believe they are 25 years old.
Many thanks to Kevin O'Driscoll for scanning the films for me a few years ago.

Click on the 'Rallying' button at the top to see similar posts.

There was a very famous local 00 driver that weekend, none other than Billy Coleman.

21/01/19 - The Fisher King

1990 Circuit Of Ireland Rally

The years don't be long passing by but it's hard to believe that it's 18 years since the accident that claimed the lives of Bertie, Mark and Emma Fisher.
There is no doubting the immense legacy that Bertie left behind in the rallying world with some fantastic displays of driving across the stages of Ireland and beyond.
His firm, Fisher Engineering was involved in some of the largest building projects in Ireland , building large parts of the  Intel plants, the Dundrum Town Centre, National Convention Centre, the 3Arena, whilst they also built the Waterfront Hall and Victoria Square in Belfast.
I was very lucky to be involved in photographing rallies during the late 80s and early 90s.
Here are some of my favourite shots of Bertie & Rory Kennedy.

Click on the Fallen Heroes link at the top of the blog if you would like to see some of the other tribute posts that I've posted.

1992 Lurgan Park Rally

Barry McGuigan's Knockout Performance at Mondello Park

Barry McGuigan delivered a stunning knockout, to himself, when he took part in the Irish round of the 1991 British Rallycross Championship that was held at Mondello Park.
He'd started in 5th place and was just about into the lead by the end of the first lap. He turned in across one of his competitors as they entered the first corner after the start / finish straight.