Aidan McGrath, Joe Whyte, Killian O'Carroll, and Ron & Sue Proctor stayed here on Thursday night and got a lift down to the Roundy House pub in Ballyhooly that night from Eamospud in his lovely new Skoda 7-seater people carrier who had stopped in for a cuppa on his way home from the Punchestown races.
There was an open invite to anyone passing Fermoy en route to Mizen Head and about 20 Minis called in for a cuppa and a toilet break.
At 8.15am this morning, Johnny Murphy and I met up at Corbett Court. The first Minis to reach us were those of Joe and Laurna Conboy. KMG had advised us of a few non-runners and over the next 90 minutes, we were able to confirm that 93 starters from Mizen that morning had reached Charleville safely, a distance according to the routebook of 99 miles.
Team O'Carroll:
During Friday, reports came through that Ian Graham had lost 3rd and 4th gear in Portlaoise and that he and young Bryn had struggled back to Mick Glennon's garage in Dublin in 2nd gear. The gearbox was duly rebuilt. This morning I turned on my phone at 6.30am and got a text sent by Mick at 2am looking for a bed. When I met Mick in Charleville, it seems that he and Ian had driven through the night to get to Barleycove even though Ian's Mini had also blown a head gasket and had driven much of the journey on 2 cylinders. On a positive note, the lads were taking pride in having changed the head gasket in 26 minutes!!!!!
Well done to both of them and hopefully all goes well for the rest of the event.
Joe Whyte broke down this morning near Herbertstown, Co. Limerick but it seems it was only a problem with a new petrol cap. Thanks to John and Rob Fenlon who offered to help Joe when he initially thought it was a distributor problem.
Billy
