Motorsport runs through the veins of many within Northern Ireland and without an army of volunteers at events, alongside those in the background leading up to an event, drivers simply wouldn’t have a sport to compete in.
As a thank you to members of The Motorsport Marshalling Partnership (MMP), who recruit and train marshals, timekeepers, radio personnel and rescue crew, to name just a few roles, drivers from a few motorsport disciplines brought their cars to Kirkistown Racing Circuit on Saturday 2 December to take MMP members for many laps in the passenger seat.
This thank you was once a huge event which saw the cream of the crop of rallying bring the latest, greatest machinery out to scrap any half-spent tyres and burn off any remaining fuel from the season. Sadly, these glory days are long gone.
This maybe isn’t a bad thing, though, as many of the MMP volunteers soon learn that motorsport doesn’t have to cost tens of thousands for a weekends rallying, or thousands for a day’s racing at the County Down circuit.
Instead, they get to experience clubman vehicles that a fair few of us could afford to build and compete in, maybe getting a bug for the driver’s seat in the future. For me, some of the best craic I have had in the driver’s seat when my name used to appear on an entry list was had with less than 120bhp in a car that was almost always driven to the event and driven home again.
Aside an abundance of road-legal cars at the MMP Rewards Day was two of the fastest Subaru Impreza’s I’ve seen in Ireland. These cars need to be experienced from the inside, as they are even more eye opening from that perspective, that they are to watch.
A couple of incredibly rapid Honda Civic’s provided smiles per miles, whilst the O’Mahony’s Millington equipped Ford Escort MkII proved very popular, helped by the fact that Richie Jnr was throwing it about in a manner the late Colin McRae would approve of.
Andy Hawthorne wasn’t hanging about in his Westfield, and light-weight bike-engined goodness was provided with the appearance of what I think was a Spire Sports Car. The rallying fraternity was represented with a couple of Vauxhall Astra’s, a Grp A Subaru Impreza, the Kelly brothers with their Peugeot 208 R2 and a Darrian kit car which are always an awesome sight in rallying.
The day started with a brief chat and presentation from The MMP’s Barry O’Neill, which was then followed up with a safety briefing ahead of the passenger runs. And, if getting the chance for a run out in a car wasn’t enough, the end-of-season prize draw was done. This sees a handful of volunteer’s head to the Scottish round of the British Touring Cars at Knockhill, next year.
Chairman of The MMP, Brian Darcy commented, “MMP stands for The Motorsport Marshalling Partnership, and we endeavour to attract, train, mentor and reward Marshalls for turning up and giving of their services, voluntarily, quite a number of weekends in the year add various types of motorsport.
“From racing here at Kirkistown to rallying all over the province in forests, closed roads and at single venues, we also help with autotesting, a discipline which Northern Ireland are the best in the world. Also sprints, hillclimbs and any other variations of four-wheel motorsport.
“Today is our one day in the year where we invite all the marshals who wish to come down to this part world for the day, and there will be probably upwards of 20 to 25 competition cars here who’s drivers are making the cars available to carry round the Marshals as passengers which is a trip for them, including myself, of a lifetime.”
With close affiliation to the Association of Northern Ireland Car Clubs, which sits as the regional body that works alongside Motorsport UK, ANICC Chairman, Wilson Carson stated, “ANICC need The MMP, cause we need marshals. We try and do as much as we can to promote the sport and let The MMP supply the marshals to every event. Without them, no events will run.”
Each ANICC club pay into a pot each year, which then gets used to pay for awards and gifts to marshals, as well as covering the likes of the lunch voucher for each volunteer that turned up to the reward day last Saturday.
