Alan Kelly

Hello my name is Alan Kelly. I'm from Co. Kilkenny in Ireland. I live very close to Waterford City where I got my first taste for rallying in the early eighties. The Circuit of Ireland used to come to Waterford and I used to go along with my family to see it. Unfortunately, the circuit stopped coming to Waterford and I did not see a rally car for quite a number of years after.

I got interested again when my uncle asked me did I want to go with him to a rally in Killarney. I went to the rally with him and I became addicted. I now try to get to as many rallies as possible. I started to bring along my camera to the rallies but as I only had a normal camera, the photos were of blurred cars. I decided to get a good camera and take some proper photos. The photos I'm taking now are a little better then the ones I used to take I hope!

I think the Irish Tarmac Championship is one of the best in Europe and I am looking foward to next years championship very much. Some of the best machinery in the world will be racing around the country and I will be following them. Keep a look out for some of my photos on this site next year.

Alan Kelly - Freelance Motorsport Photographer - Email

Site: Alan Kelly's Irish Rally Photos

Anthony Hunter

Hi, I'm Anthony Hunter. I work as a research and development engineer for Ulster Carpet Mills Ltd, in Northern Ireland. The rest of my time (when the wife allows!) is taken up as a freelance photographer, chasing rally cars around Ireland. I mostly cover the Irish motorsport scene, including the Northern Ireland Rally Championship, the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, and some rounds of the British Rally Championship.

I always try to get to the British round of the World Rally Championship - now called the Rally of Great Britain (mostly based in South Wales!!!). Most of my work is for drivers and for the Irish motoring magazine CarSport. Although motorsport is my greatest passion, I have found myself being bribed into taking wedding photos and baby portraits etc.

My passion for motorsport goes back to very early childhood, when I was weaned on petrol fumes in my fathers workshop. The rallying aspect grew from being taken along to the Circuit of Ireland by my father, to see rallying greats like Billy Coleman, Rodger Clarke, Ari Vatenan, Tony Pond, Jimmy McRae, Russell Brookes (to name a few) compete in "real" rally cars such as Escorts, Chevettes, Mantas, Porsches, Sunbeams etc. This then became the addiction it is today, following motorsport events with a camera.

To be honest, I am not a huge fan of the modern F2 rally cars. I find them quite boring compared to the cars of the seventies and eighties. That is probably why I am a huge fan of Irish rallying, where some of those cars can still be seen competing today.

Anthony Hunter - Freelance Motorsport Photographer - Email

Site: Motorsport Photography by Anthony Hunter

Brian G. Thornton

Our Road Test Editor Brian Thornton has been appraising new cars and writing about them for over 23 years. He lives in the west of Ireland - Galway on the Atlantic Coast, where the air is fresh and the word pollution hasn't yet found a meaning! He writes for two local newspapers (remember the hard copy paper versions that you may buy weekly?) and various magazines, about cars, vans, trucks and a range of hotels, pubs, and builders. We kid you not! Brian is a past Chairman of the Irish Motoring Writers Association - writing is his life.

Local radio began in Ireland officially 10 years ago, and within weeks Brian had a programme about cars broadcast weekly. It still runs, albeit seasonally, on a different radio station. He types his way through life on a keyboard - and praises the guy who invented spell checkers....... He travels regularly to mainland Europe to catch up on the latest car launches - and has even been known to see cars in the west of Ireland prior to their launch - it is a test area for major manufacturers after all.

Brian will be reporting to The Car Enthusiast on his driving impressions with new cars as they are launched. Like the UK and Japan, Ireland drives on the left (right hand drive) so he has vast experience of driving on both left side, right side, and when he rallied down the middle too!

Colin Courtney

Hey. I'm Colin Courtney. I work in Morton Newspapers as a Picture Editor/Plate Maker/Camera Room Operative. In my spare time I like to waste my money following the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship, British Rally Championship, Northern Ireland Rally Championship, some of the Irish National Rally Championship and certain rounds of the World Rally Championship. I take pictures at these events, and the photos are available for viewing on my website. I also write articles on various drivers for their local Morton Newspapers title and get them published and have done for the last five years.

After a meeting with Shane (the editor!) at the Autosport Show, I volunteered my services to The Car Enthusiast to cover whatever rallies I go to in words and pictures. I hope I can live up to expectations.

My earliest recollection of rallying stems back to the early eighties when the Circuit of Ireland was regularly shown on TV with daily highlights, and on a number of occasions when the rally passed through Portadown the road section took them past my grandparents house were I used to stand and watch. It was only a matter of time before I pestered my father into bringing me to a rally, and coming from a football oriented family, that wasn't an easy job. The first rally I attended was actually with my uncle, but I had been bitten by the bug, and it was hard to stop it. In the following years football and music played its part to further me from motorsport, but in 1994 a video camera brought the interest flooding back. A driving licence helped get me to rallies, and then when I dug up my old 35mm camera I was truly hooked again.

In recent times my photographs have been published in CarSport Magazine in Ireland, Car and Car Conversions, Motoring News and Autosport.

I am looking forward to the coming season when the WRC machines are now eligible for the BRC again. And with Citroen joining the WRC this year, along with the current influx of WRC machinery in Ireland I'm looking forward to the season ahead and working with The Car Enthusiast.

Site: Courtney Motorsport Images

Kevin Byrne

I've arrived at The Car Enthusiast by an interesting route. I studied Civil Engineering at University College Cork and during my tenure there I also developed a keen interest in computing.

Although the Internet was still relatively in it's infancy then, the Web was about to explode and I was fascinated with the way the Internet was becoming the World Wide Web in all it's multi-media glory. Having worked on-site as an engineer for a few years, I decided to pursue my interest in I.T. a little more keenly - this being driven by the way the new technology was gradually evolving. After a year or two doing the 'travel thing', I returned to London and did a couple of courses in computing applications, including HTML, which became the standard basic Web page-writing language.

Earlier this year I came in contact with Shane O' Donoghue and Phil Ahern, the founders of caint.com and joined them as a programmer on this excellent on-line magazine. The magazine is going from strength to strength and I'm delighted to be involved in something that's at the cutting edge of conveying information today.

Mark Sims

Hi there, my name is Mark Sims and I live in Warwickshire in the UK. I work as a Foundry Engineer for Ford Motor Company in their Powertrain Division. In my spare time I cram in as much rallying as I can!!!

I normally travel to Wales to photograph a number of rallies in a variety of championships such as the Mobil 1 British Championship and the Safety Devices Tarmac Championship. I have been lucky enough to do some work for Mark Welch and his team, Mark II Motorsport during 1999 and I am looking forward to following the team through the course of the 2000 Safety Devices Tarmac Championship with their new Escort Cosworth which will be built from scratch ready for the start of the season. The Car Enthusiast will be charting Mark's progress as the year unfolds.

I also run a website which contains a collection of some of my rally photographs. The site also contains a guest gallery for submissions from fellow rally photographers, a webcam and a collection of rally video samples of the rallies I have covered.

The plan for this year (2000) is to cover as many rallies as I can possibly manage. I hope to further improve my web site and start to market the shots that I take. I will also be submitting photos and reports to The Car Enthusiast to further the magazine's motor sport sections, in particular rallying. The magazine is a great publication and I look forward to working with the team and bringing you the best in rally action, I hope you enjoy the photos.

Site: Mark's Rally Gallery