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I’m rather excited right now, and I’m not even going to be racing. It’s that time of the year again, it’s time for the All Tar Rally at Killarney!! It’s not like your normal rally, this is basically one massive super special type stage held inside and all around the circuit. Like the name says, it’s all on tarmac, and when I say all, I do mean ALL! That’s basically why I’m so excited because I will get to see race and rally cars go balls to the wall through places you’d never expect cars to be racing. They race through the pit area, side roads, service roads, through the tunnel… you name it! Oh, and they do race on track too, but ironically that’s the boring part of it!


Raceweb will specifically be following Team Dexter Bruce and Ernest Page in their 2.0L 8V Mk1 Golf on the day. I thought I’d catch up with them on the Thursday night for some final tuning and preparation before the race.


On my arrival I happen to see one of my old childhood heroes working on Dexter’s car, none other than legendary racer and tuner Mr Jess Hugget!! What an honour it was to meet this man!


Some times all you need are the basics...


While other times you need a bit more...


This Mk1 was originally Dexter’s 1.4L rally car, but he has since transformed it into a Clubmans racer and intends to race full time with it next year. Since the new 2.0L lump was newly fitted, there were still a few small issues. After a few test runs Mr. Hugget sorted the pinging problems out in no time and got the car to run smoothly and reliably.


Next on the agenda was suspension setup. The car was just way too low for the car killer All Tar Rally. Because you’re racing mostly off track, the road surface is nowhere near as smooth as it is on track. Which means bumps, gutters, potholes and more things that the car will end up driving over. The cars really do need to last the entire race.


I could listen to Mr. Hugget for DAYS! All the classic stories that he was telling us were what dreams were made of. After a while we forgot about poor Dex slaving away but eventually got back on point. Which was that the suspension was too low and too hard. The ride heights needed to be adjusted and bump stops removed. After some time and many jack up and wheel off moments the boys finally got it sorted.


Lastly one final touch for the night was putting the Raceweb stickers on. There will be more stickers/sponsors logos added today, so the car won’t look exactly the same come Saturday. Be sure to keep an eye out for these guys at the rally, Dexter intends not to disappoint!


Keep a lookout for my future updates of the All Tar Rally coming next week…

RaceMasteR J