MOTORSPORT: Time to Hone in on Billy Coleman award after Ulster success
Local driver Jordan Hone was winner of the R2 category at the recent Ulster International Rally.
The 22-year-old proved up to the challenge as he guided his Opel Adam to a superb R2 category victory against the best of the British Rally Championship and Irish Tarmac Rally Championship crews.
Jordan, who had his father Paul in the co-driver’s seat, lifted the Philip White Tyres Young Achievers Award after a resounding run where he finished tenth overall in the 1600cc Opel Adam R2.
Craig Breen, Rory Galligan and Daniel McKenna already have their names on the perpetual trophy. This is a significant success for Jordan who is dearly hoping to be considered for the Motorsport Ireland Billy Coleman Award process this year. The award is currently held by Park’s Callum Devine.
“We broke our jinx on the Ulster Rally, and the event worked out well, but it was a tough, and an intense battle in difficult conditions” said the young Development Engineer.
The Friday stages included the classic Glendun and Torr Head tests, tackled in wet and slippery conditions, and Jordan started off swiftly but sensibly.
“We had no test before-hand, and we decided not to contest the shake-down, so really Glendun and Torr Head on the first loop were our test stages. After the accident I had on the Ulster Rally last year I was apprehensive, but we had no dramas. Surprisingly we weren’t too far behind the R2 category leaders, so we were happy with that.”
On the evening loop and the Rallyhire team were now fine-tuned the damper settings to the conditions and bolted on the spot-lights, and Jordan and Paul decided to try and make up time in the TOC Utilities supported R2.
“It didn’t quite go to plan as during the Glendun stage we lost a lot of the braking power as the pedal went to the floor! On the short ten-minute road section to Torr Head we got some braking power back, but starting that stage they weren’t ideal, which was a little concerning. How-ever we tried not to use as much aggressive braking and we came out with a fastest R2 time which brought us up to fourth in R2, thirty seconds behind the leader Steve Rokland.”
For day two the Premier Car Parts Opel team had high hopes, but gambling on a cut slick on the opening Langford Lodge test cost them a few seconds to Josh McErlean who was ahead in his Ford Fiesta. Fortunes were to change as they headed towards the stages in the Sperrins, a change of rear tyres helping in the greasy conditions.
On stage seven- Lisnamuck they took fastest R2 time by a full three seconds, putting them up to third R2, just fifteen seconds off the lead. On the next long Doraville test Jordan and Paul were again fastest after completing small suspension setting changes just before the mountainous test.
“The team have put a lot of work into the car lately to get it to my liking, including some geometry changes, and experimenting with brake pads. My confidence with the car is growing and by the Saturday afternoon stages we really got moving.”
Stage ten was a repeat run of Lisnamuck, and Jordan had a brilliant run on this difficult stage, recording fastest R2 time by fourteen seconds and moving into a four second R2 lead. With one of his rivals Josh McErlean puncturing on this test, and then going off into retirement on the next test, the pressure was all coming from Norweigan Rokland in his Peugeot 208.
“We had a small mishap on the final Doraville stage when we spun at a hairpin and had to reverse losing about ten seconds. I thought I had thrown away the lead, but in fact we took another nine seconds out of Rokland to extend the winning margin. It was just brilliant and great to see your name on that trophy.” Amazingly the result also meant that Jordan was second overall of the Irish Tarmac Championship drivers to finish.
Now the team are busy switching the Opel back to its gravel set-ups for the Valvoline Motorsport Ireland Irish National Forest Championship final Lakeland and Bushwhacker rounds.
“It’s less than two weeks to the Lakeland in Enniskillen and there’s a lot at stake for the Junior forestry championship. Anyone of four drivers are in contention to win it. The Lakeland was good to me last year, so we are hoping it will be the same this time around, and certainly I have to go for two really good results.”
For more on Jordan Hone visit- F-Jordan Hone Rallying; You-Tube- Hone Motorsport