IT’S probably not surprising that double-winning Irish Historic Tarmac Championship co-driver Anthony O’Sullivan’s favourite stage is Ardfield, where he came to live some 15 years ago.
There’s no touch of bias here really as this classic stage always endeared itself to Grenagh born co-driver, who was coming to West Cork for many years previous.
He began rallying in 2011 with Blarney’s Noel O’Mahony in a Toyota Starlet. As one would expect, the West Cork Rally was his first event, finishing sixth in Class 9 and 67th overall. In 2012, another outing with O’Mahony, this time on the Imokilly Single Stage event, brought a fourth in class finish and 67th overall.
A mutual friend brought him in touch with Welsh driver Ian Godney for the 2013 season and they had outings in the West Cork Rally and the national section of Rally GB, in a Renault Clio and a VW Golf GTi respectively, with both ending in retirements.
Outings for the next two seasons (2014 and 2015) included a third in Class 20 in a Subaru WRC and a Class 20 victory in the National Rally Championship with fellow local Shane Keneally (Mitsubishi Lancer).
The number of rallies increased in the intervening years as he became far more immersed in the sport and in 2018 his association with overseas drivers escalated.
From his time with Ian Godney he got to know another Welshman, Gareth Lloyd, and then Wyn Hughes and Neil Williams, with whom he’s been co-driving for the last six years.
That first Irish Historic Tarmac Championship and a Southern 4 Rally title landed in 2022 along with various wins in Wales. This season, O’Sullivan bagged another Historic Tarmac title courtesy of calling the pacenotes for the Welsh trio of Tomas Davies, Neil Williams and Meirion Evans, all I Mk. 2 Ford Escorts.
Welsh driver Meirion Evans (Ford Escort) and Ardfield’s Anthony O’Sullivan pictured on the Tim Healy Pass stage of this year’s Assess Ireland Rally of the Lakes.
There are no prizes for guessing his favourite event.
‘I would have always said the West Cork Rally because I've been coming down here so long. But doing Donegal International (last June) and getting a trophy is very, very special,’ O’Sullivan said.
As for the favourite stage, there are genuine reasons for choosing Ardfield.
‘It’s a classic, very quick and equally demanding,’ he explained.
The perception that Historic rallying is slow has long since been discarded, it’s also an evolving process. O’Sullivan said: ‘It is very competitive and it's changing with guys in exceptional cars.’
Dominated by Mk. 2 Ford Escorts, the progression to the BMW M3 and Subaru Legacy brings a changing dynamic.
‘Yes, but I think we won’t see as many Group A cars on the stages as people think, they are expensive to run,’ O’Sullivan added.
The pace at the cutting edge of Historic rallying is genuinely quick, so what are the challenges facing the likes of O’Sullivan and his fellow co-drivers?
‘It's in preparation – getting everything right for the rally, making good pacenotes (and of course on the event, getting the notes out exactly at the right time) and making sure that you have a plan in place.’
That plan rotates around the rally weekend as O’Sullivan explains.
‘It’s all about trying to make recce (reconnaissance) as easy as possible for the driver and myself because the weekend is long enough. So usually, you try to condense everything down. Make sure that you're doing a loop that's concise and yeah, in the shortest time possible,’ he said.
This season O’Sullivan secured that second title as he gained championship points with three different drivers over the course of the series where the best six rounds counted.
‘They all have different ways that they like notes being called, so it's trying to get into that sweet spot,’ he added.
For 2025, that won’t be a recurring theme.
‘I've done a lot of rallying with Meirion (Evans) in the last few years. He's a very professional guy, so I know exactly what to do. I also know what he expects of me as well,’ he said.
With Evans competing in the Silver Fern Rally in New Zealand that runs from this Saturday until next Friday (55 stages) O’Sullivan will contest next week’s Killarney Historic Rally, the opening round of the Historic ITRC, with Neil Williams. Then next February it's onboard with Evans.
