OPINION: Lads – You can’t be warming tyres on public roads

OPINION: Lads: You can’t be warming tyres on public roads
By Sean Moriarty
Lads, we need to have a serious chat.
You cannot be warming tyres on public road sections. You just can’t. I don’t care if the road section is 3km long or 103km long. It is unacceptable.
Picture the scene. We arrive in a town for a rally weekend. We bring 150 vans, trailers, recce cars, and rally cars. In most places, we are welcomed with open arms.
Those 450-plus vehicles bring a massive economic boost to bars, restaurants, and hotels. In other places, let’s be honest, we are merely tolerated because of that spend.
To the outside world, we are a massive inconvenience. We close roads, we take up parking spaces, and we shut town centres for ceremonial starts and special stages.
Our behaviour in everything we do, from how we manage our litter to how we conduct ourselves on the public road, reflects on the entire sport.
I am not here to discuss whether the Gardaí were right or wrong, or if a judge was fair, or if Motorsport Ireland was justified in issuing fines. They are the law-keepers and we will let them do their job.
I am talking about the perception of our sport.
A rally car on a public road section is intimidating enough for an ordinary road user.
Adding sudden swerves and aggressive braking to “get heat” into the rubber is downright frightening to a non-enthusiast.
I am aware that not every competitor warms tyres, but we all need to think of Mrs Murphy on her way to SuperValu for her Saturday morning messages.
If she is met with a car darting across the road in front of her, she doesn’t see a “competitor preparing for a stage”.
She sees a menace.
If we continue to add to this problem, we will eventually find ourselves unwelcome in the towns that currently welcome us.
We all sign up to the Motorsport Ireland ethos of “Keep the Race in Its Place.” All of us. No exceptions.
As an aside, there are two other points to consider.
On the West Cork Rally, the entrance to the Ring stage from the road-closed point to the stage start was ample for tyre warming within a controlled environment.
I know, because I walked it on Saturday morning. Yet, even there, I would have reservations given the number of spectators walking into the stage start to catch the action.
We only have to look back at a rally late last year. On a stage with ample closed road between the barrier and the arrival control, a driver destroyed his own car while warming tyres. Imagine for a second if he had collided with other competitors, or worse, pedestrians.
Our sport depends on public goodwill. Don’t throw it away for the sake of a few degrees of tyre temperature. Keep the racing for between the clocks.
Photo: RAC Archives

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