Sky Sports News’ F1 analyst Tony Jardine and BBC Radio 5 Live’s Maurice Hamilton arrived at the Mount Errigal Hotel in Letterkenny at the end of the 2012 Topaz Donegal International Rally on Sunday afternoon, where the pair claimed a superb 14th overall after almost 1100km of competitive driving spread over three days. It was a magnificent result for the duo and all the MIS Motorsport team run by ProSpeed with additional support this weekend from the Castle Murray House Hotel as well as regular partners Kumho, Arai and Alpinestars.
By Friday morning Tony and Maurice had completed their recce for the Topaz Donegal International Rally 2012, and the car had passed through scrutiny and the ProSpeed team were all ready to go.
The Kumho-shod Mitsubishi left Letterkenny at Friday lunchtime to contest the eight stages of the opening day under grey skies, which gave a hint of the weather to come on the Topaz Donegal International Rally. The first loop of three stages took the crew to the East of Letterkenny, where they completed the Gortree, Clifford’s and Mouldy Hill tests before making their way to service in the picturesque town of Buncrana. A steady start in the now damp conditions meat that Tony was happy with the way things had started for the team and said at service, “I am glad we have those first three out of the way, and are into the event proper now. There has been a little rain and the roads are damp in places, and will catch you out if you do not pay attention. The Kumho tyres are working well, and able to cope in the areas where some stones and dirt have been pulled out by the cars running in front of us. We had a bit of a moment at a downhill ‘five left’ when we arrived at it a bit too quickly, but all in all I am happy, the car is good and Maurice and I are enjoying it.”
The ProSpeed run, MIS Motorsport backed crew then headed out for a repeat run over the previously contested stages, under the threat of an occasional shower of rain. Making up places on the leader board on every stage they returned back to the Buncrana service in 27th place overall after six stages. With the car requiring little more than routine checks Tony was very happy with his progress on the event so far and said in service, “We went with Kumho intermediate tyres for that loop and it was a good choice as they worked ever so well on these damp roads. It’s not so easy for others though as we have come across
