JOE’s Oisin Collins is at the IRC Circuit of Ireland Rally and he met up with one of the country’s most promising up and coming stars, Robert Barrable.
Robert Barrable is one of Ireland’s most promising rally stars and he is currently taking part in the IRC Circuit of Ireland Rally in Northern Ireland were he sits in a comfortable 8th place. Only last week we brought you the news of his recent sponsorship deal with Skoda Motorsport, so we caught up with the young lad from Swords to see how he has been getting on so far.
JOE: So how was the car performing today Rob?
Robert: Yeah we’re happy enough, we had a slight off road excursion this morning but other than that it’s all going well. The tyres are working well for us and the car has been working well too.
JOE: So how does a young lad from Dublin get into rallying?
Rob: Ah there’s a long heritage going back, I suppose it’s in the family genes. My Da was rallying 20 years ago and we were brought up and reared between the motoring trade and rallying, so that’s how I’ve kept up with it. It’s been in the family for a long, long time you know.
JOE: So you’ll be sticking with it for a while then?
Rob: Yeah definitely. We’re going to try and stick with it, we’re going to give it a good go this year and next year and we’ll have a look then and see where we want to go from there.
JOE: What does it mean to have a manufacture like Skoda on Board?
Rob: It’s really promising. Just to have support of a major manufacture is a real confidence boost for an up and coming driver like myself, but yeah, it’s great to have someone like them on board.
JOE: What the next few races look like?
Rob: Well, we’re going to go back to the Geko Ypres Rally in Belgium, where we scored manufacturer’s points for Skoda last year and where we finished 9th overall, then we’ll go back to the Czech Republic to Skoda’s home rally. Then, we’ll hopefully finish off the year with an IRC and maybe one or two rallies in Ireland between then, but our main priority is to get this weekend done and dusted so that we can collect as much data as possible on how the car is preforming on the roads, so that we can see where we need to be.
JOE: Now, be honest, where’s your favourite place to rally?
Rob: Well, so far, it would have to have been Belgium last year, I was really, really impressed because the roads were just so good. Then after that it would have to be Killarney, which I absolutely love, it’s really impressive as well.
JOE: Thanks very much Rob, and best of luck with the final few stages.
Rob: Cheers, all the best now.
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