Canterbury Rally

Feeling so privileged to have been back behind the wheel at Canterbury rally over the weekend.
We spent the Friday and Saturday doing recce, organising our notes and doing the finishing touches on the car before the ceremonial start on Saturday night.  
Sunday we were off to a slippery start in stage one but after changing the tyre pressures at the first service we were back to going sideways and worked hard, getting faster throughout the rally. 
Many thanks to Brianna for once again being an amazing co driver and thanks to Jay and Pete for letting us join the team for the weekend..you guys are amazing! 
Thanks to everyone who came and said hello, helped us get to the rally, helped during the rally and to all the amazing organizers and volunteers. Congrats to all the competitors who set the bar really high and motivate us to push harder every rally.
Out next event will be South Canterbury in three weeks 

Otago Rally 2019

What an awesome weekend of rallying, we came away with 2nd in class at our first NZ Rally Championship event. 

We started the rally with recce on Friday which was all new to me along with doing notes. Saturday marked the start of the rally stages which included foresty roads and public gravel roads where our confidence grew throughout the day.  Thanks to the guys at SAS for your awesome servicing that helped keep us and the car going. 

Going into the last stage currently in second place was an exciting and nerving feeling knowing there was a battle on. When we finished our rally we couldn't stop smiling knowing we had done it,  made it to the end of our first NZRC rally and in second place. 

Thanks to everyone who has helped me get to where I am, whether it be working on the car,  sponsorship or just being there encouraging me along.. I appreciate it so much.  
Biggest thanks goes out to my co driver  Brianna Little for the amazing job you did.  Can't wait to see how much more we can learn and improve at rally Canterbury!

Last night we had our end of season prize giving which was my first one for rallying. 
I was super proud to achieve most the goals I had set for myself at the start of last year. 
I was very fortunate to win four awards. 
-3rd in class
-3rd in the sprint series 
-The trophy for top woman driver
-The trophy for top junior/under 25 driver
I am super honoured to be the first women to win the under 25’s trophy in the 33 years it has been awarded…Every dream is achievable no matter how big or small it may be.
Congratulations to all the other trophy winners, thanks to all the competitors for being so welcoming and for the awesome competition. 
There are so many people who have positively influenced my career in rallying so far which I am so grateful for. Also a big thanks to the many awesome people and volunteers who work hard behind the scenes and on the scene so we can go rallying. 
Going into this season I have some pretty ambitious goals to work toward and am looking forward to the journey ahead. 
I'll keep you all posted and will be announcing what I’ll be doing this year very soon 2 Attachments  

Lawrence rally 2018

In short I didn't have the best luck at this rally but did take away some tips from Matt on where I can improve.  Sitting at the start of stage one Matt noticed the temperature gauge starting to rise, every drivers nightmare..will my car cook... Will I cook.., as we turn the heater on full noise.  As we took off the temperature went down but we weren't taking any chances so I got to experience rallying in what felt like the middle of summer.  
Matt gave me some good points about staying in the tracks and that as my confidence grows with the car I'll be able to brake later too making gains.  
Service went smoothly, big thanks to Tom for being the man on the job.  Stage three went relatively well and having fixed the over heating issue it was back to normal temperature inside the car too.  
Unfortunately stage four ended our chances of any impressive race to the end when we broke the front axle not long after leaving the start line. We were lucky to not loose drive as we managed to nurse it to the end.  
Thanks to Matt for sitting beside me and giving me heaps of helpful advice. 
Big job on now to improve the car for next season and fix the front axle

Hanmer Rally:

Auchenflower Road Sprint

Last weekend I spent Saturday preparing my car and myself for Auchenflower sprint, the first really fast gravel sprint I would do and the first time I would use notes that I had written from watching other people's in car. Sunday morning I woke to a perfect sunny day and a bundle of nerves but once I got my suit and helmet on I was ready to go take on a new challenge. I knew I had to make the most of these final kilometres of practice before hanmer next weekend.  Those thoughts helped me immensely to push on through each run,  improving my time by 20 seconds throughout the day. Mum enjoyed her co driving experience and called the notes perfectly which helped install confidence that I could go harder and faster into corners.  At the start of the day I was so unsure I could enjoy the fast paced sprint but by the end of the day I was very comfortable in the car and super happy at how much I learnt and enjoyed it.  Now the race is on to get a LSD into my car before hanmer so I can learn to drive the corolla with more than one wheel pedaling..see you all there!

Kaiwara Road Gravel Sprint

Enjoyed being back behind the wheel last Sunday at the Kaiwara gravel sprint. Found the road a good challenge with fast downhills onto bridges,  multiple surface changes, crests and many other new things I got to experience. Was super happy to improve my time on the last run despite the fact that the rain had been falling since run two. Feels good to be building up the confidence leading up to my first rally. Looking forward to another opportunity to learn more about rallying at Auchenflower gravel sprint in a couple weeks

Taumutu Rally Sprint

So I think I'm safe to say I've learnt a massive lesson from my second rally sprint. On the first run I was 8th on the road and found I was still sweeping gravel off, it made it extremely challenging being my second time trying to drive fast on gravel. Unfortunately in the second run I tried to go a little too fast around the first corner considering the amount of gravel that was still loose on the road and ended up going off damaging my car. Luckily I only ripped the front bumper off. At the time I was very upset and should have handled the situation a lot better. Thinking about it later I realised how lucky I was to learn two lessons, first one being I need to find my limits and if it feels loose that means slow down till you're comfortable with the car. My passenger and myself were uninjured and the car is easily fixable so that's a massive plus. The second lesson learnt being how I handle myself after a small incident, it's not the end of the world, even the best drivers crash. I'll come back fighting, take onboard everything that happened and keep trying to improve everytime I get behind the wheel! Thanks to Matt Summerfield and my brother James O'Rourke for your support.

Cust Rally Sprint

The switch to Rally:

After being involved in a crash at round three of the 2kCup championship and finding myself in hospital and my car damaged I decided to try rallying. At first it seemed like a really hard decision swapping from circuit racing which I had known since I was 14 years old but after doing my first rally sprint it became a lot easier to realise that it is a very realistic Motorsport path to follow. I can't believe how much talent is required to go fast on gravel and I can't wait to learn more and improve my skill set. My 2018 Motorsport season has just changed path dramatically but it's only getting more exciting and I take on the rally scene!