Casually, Irish Country Living enquires how James Wilson got into rallying. His answer speaks for itself.
“My family probably would be the biggest cause of it; I was going to say the cause of ‘this disease’, sometimes it’s known as a disease, rallying,” he laughs.
Referring to rallying as a disease, James is alluding to the way in which it transfixes those involved, and also the time and money that goes into it.
James is an up and coming rally driver from Keady, Co Armagh. In 2018 he won the prestigious Motorsports Ireland Billy Coleman Award for young rally driver of the year. It’s worth €100,000 to the winner’s rallying career. In 2017 he was the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship R2 winner and in 2018 he was the junior winner of the Irish Forest Rally Championship.
For James, rallying has long been a hobby, but winning the Billy Coleman Award and being in the Motorsports Ireland Academy, he has gotten more involved in the sport than he ever thought he would. He also works full time in his family’s business, Road Tankers Armagh, which manufactures oil tankers.
As James says himself, it’s through his family he got into rallying. In the 1970s, his grandparents James and Hilary Wilson rallied. His father Trevor and uncle Glenn got into it too. James’s father retired from the sport just as he was born, but he remembers going to see his uncle drive.
James started rallying at 17, driving a 1200cc Vauxhall Nova in a junior series. At 19, he got a competition licence and began stage rallying.
It was a big enough accident, I wasn’t hurt or injured or anything, but it destroyed the car
However, things in the rallying world – as for many – haven’t always been linear for James. At the age of 20 he had an accident where, thankfully, no one was hurt but afterwards he was out of rallying for some time. He had to rebuild the car and with other commitments, he didn’t rally for two years.
“It was a big enough accident, I wasn’t hurt or injured or anything, but it destroyed the car. It was serious enough, but nobody was hurt. I sort of used what was left of the car, but basically I was more or less starting from scratch,” explains James.
“I fabricated the shell myself with a close friend. We slowly built the car over time and then got back at it. Between school, one thing and another, I was away from it longer than I expected, but that’s just the way it panned out.”
The year James returned to rallying, he won the Northern Ireland Junior Rally Championship and was back on an upward trajectory.
Preparation
For the past two years James has been working with a team from Letterkenny. His car, a Hyundai i20 R5, is kept there and they do his service at the rally. But prior to this, going to a rally really was a family and friends affair.
“Before that it was probably more of a hobby and it was all family influenced. We would have basically spent a week of nights before the rally preparing the car, packing the van, getting everything ready and we all headed off wherever we were going together,” says James. “They all looked after the car during the rally at service. It definitely takes a lot of support from friends and family to be able to do it.”
James Wilson, rally driver.
As well as rallying around Ireland, James has also driven in Belgium, England, Scotland and Wales. His navigator is Arthur Kierans. They’ve been driving together for the past two years.
They won their first race out this year, the first round of the Irish Forest Championship, but unfortunately the rest of the events are cancelled at the moment.
“You have to spend a lot of time together, driver and co-driver. At the rally itself and on the recce beforehand. If you were doing a two-day international rally say, you could be two to three days before that in the car together doing the pace notes, training and preparing for the rally.
Both people need to be really switched on. That’s obviously very, very important, so you need to get it right on the first go
“In Irish rallying you can only go over a stage a maximum of three times. You get three attempts at writing your notes.
“Both people need to be really switched on. That’s obviously very, very important, so you need to get it right on the first go.”
After practising the stages, which would be recorded, they go back to the hotel and watch the videos.
James’s preparation for a rally goes beyond mechanics and driving, though. Throughout the winter just gone, he and Arthur put in a big effort to make sure everything was dialled in. Being physically fit and having your head in the right place is of upmost importance.
James was seeing a sports performance psychologist through the Motorsports Ireland Academy and was also working with a personal trainer three nights a week. “Your head being in the right place is probably the most important thing. Things were going well this year. We had a good plan, fitness was good and that was proven when we went to the first event and won it. I’m looking forward now to getting back at that.”
Obviously, James was seeing a personal trainer to improve his physical fitness, which he says is extremely important in rallying to keep you focused.
“Temperatures get very high inside the car, your physical fitness is very important so you’re not getting tired or that you don’t start thinking about something else. Your physical fitness is the key to your mental awareness, basically. If you’re tired, you’re not thinking straight and you’re just not fully aware.
Some mornings before events I could be sick in my stomach. Arthur, he’s always rearing to go
“Also, with the level of the car we’re driving, there’s a minimum weight you can be. Myself and Arthur were more or less on that minimum weight, 75kg. So if our weight is at the minimum, the car is obviously as light as it can be. That all counts for seconds,” he explains.
Very honestly, James says before a rally he would get nervous.
“Some mornings before events I could be sick in my stomach. Arthur, he’s always rearing to go. I think everyone has their own way in that regard. When you get going and get the helmet on, it’s like someone flicks a switch and you’re just away at that point.
“Whenever you get started and get going, it’s good craic. Certainly, you have to enjoy it. There wouldn’t be much point in doing it if you weren’t enjoying it. For the build-up beforehand I would be pretty focused, I would kind of isolate myself and just keep focused.”
Finance and safety
Financially, rallying can be quite an expensive sport. James says you can get involved in a cheap enough way to start, but at the higher levels the money that needs to be put in is much more substantial. These days, he points out, you’re not just talking about sponsors, but also investors.
Since he began keeping his car in Letterkenny, he jokes that the evenings he would have spent in the garage are now spent working to help finance it.
In terms of safety in rallying, James feels things have come a long way. Rules and regulations in the sport are stringent and cars are as safe as they can be with roll cages and fire extinguisher systems. At the top level also, you have to get into the car fully alert, he says.
“In the car there’s nothing really more you can do than be at the top of your game. Obviously, physical fitness brings that. If you’re getting into the car at the top level tired or just unfocused, the chances are an accident could happen.
Unfortunately we lost Manus Kelly last year in Donegal. It’s a dangerous sport, but there’s safety measures in place to make it as safe as can be
“Some of the accidents in the World Championship are absolutely huge and both driver and co-driver can walk away, but there’s that chance of a freak accident where something might happen.
“Unfortunately we lost Manus Kelly last year in Donegal. It’s a dangerous sport, but there’s safety measures in place to make it as safe as can be.”
Going forward, James is excited for rallies to start up again and will be just taking things as they come.
“I never really tended to think far ahead. I have a yearly plan, I stick to it and execute it as best I can. It was never something I did plan overly far ahead.
“I just do what I need to do to keep my head on in the moment; do it the best I can, enjoy it and then see what comes next.
“You’re just enjoying what you have in the here and now, because obviously not everything lasts for ever and maybe sponsors won’t always be there. So I just think it’s important to focus on the now.”
Favourite car: Porsche
Personal hero: Billy Coleman. They say the only thing he ever rolled was a combine harvester, he never rolled a car.
Person who taught you how to drive: A mixture of a few people. Probably more seriously when I got into rally cars it would have been my dad and my uncle. I had a lot of input and advice from a whole lot of people, which was good.
Favourite place to drive: Killarney. Anytime you go up Moll’s Gap, it’s probably some of the best scenery you’ll see anywhere in the world, I think.
Best driving song: Highway to Hell by ACDC.
Read more
First gear: an introduction to motorsports in Ireland
Second Gear: the Machine Deane and the Drift Queen
Third Gear: Billy Coleman reflects on 20 years of rallying
Casually, Irish Country Living enquires how James Wilson got into rallying. His answer speaks for itself.
“My family probably would be the biggest cause of it; I was going to say the cause of ‘this disease’, sometimes it’s known as a disease, rallying,” he laughs.
Referring to rallying as a disease, James is alluding to the way in which it transfixes those involved, and also the time and money that goes into it.
James is an up and coming rally driver from Keady, Co Armagh. In 2018 he won the prestigious Motorsports Ireland Billy Coleman Award for young rally driver of the year. It’s worth €100,000 to the winner’s rallying career. In 2017 he was the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship R2 winner and in 2018 he was the junior winner of the Irish Forest Rally Championship.
For James, rallying has long been a hobby, but winning the Billy Coleman Award and being in the Motorsports Ireland Academy, he has gotten more involved in the sport than he ever thought he would. He also works full time in his family’s business, Road Tankers Armagh, which manufactures oil tankers.
As James says himself, it’s through his family he got into rallying. In the 1970s, his grandparents James and Hilary Wilson rallied. His father Trevor and uncle Glenn got into it too. James’s father retired from the sport just as he was born, but he remembers going to see his uncle drive.
James started rallying at 17, driving a 1200cc Vauxhall Nova in a junior series. At 19, he got a competition licence and began stage rallying.
It was a big enough accident, I wasn’t hurt or injured or anything, but it destroyed the car
However, things in the rallying world – as for many – haven’t always been linear for James. At the age of 20 he had an accident where, thankfully, no one was hurt but afterwards he was out of rallying for some time. He had to rebuild the car and with other commitments, he didn’t rally for two years.
“It was a big enough accident, I wasn’t hurt or injured or anything, but it destroyed the car. It was serious enough, but nobody was hurt. I sort of used what was left of the car, but basically I was more or less starting from scratch,” explains James.
“I fabricated the shell myself with a close friend. We slowly built the car over time and then got back at it. Between school, one thing and another, I was away from it longer than I expected, but that’s just the way it panned out.”
The year James returned to rallying, he won the Northern Ireland Junior Rally Championship and was back on an upward trajectory.
Preparation
For the past two years James has been working with a team from Letterkenny. His car, a Hyundai i20 R5, is kept there and they do his service at the rally. But prior to this, going to a rally really was a family and friends affair.
“Before that it was probably more of a hobby and it was all family influenced. We would have basically spent a week of nights before the rally preparing the car, packing the van, getting everything ready and we all headed off wherever we were going together,” says James. “They all looked after the car during the rally at service. It definitely takes a lot of support from friends and family to be able to do it.”
James Wilson, rally driver.
As well as rallying around Ireland, James has also driven in Belgium, England, Scotland and Wales. His navigator is Arthur Kierans. They’ve been driving together for the past two years.
They won their first race out this year, the first round of the Irish Forest Championship, but unfortunately the rest of the events are cancelled at the moment.
“You have to spend a lot of time together, driver and co-driver. At the rally itself and on the recce beforehand. If you were doing a two-day international rally say, you could be two to three days before that in the car together doing the pace notes, training and preparing for the rally.
Both people need to be really switched on. That’s obviously very, very important, so you need to get it right on the first go
“In Irish rallying you can only go over a stage a maximum of three times. You get three attempts at writing your notes.
“Both people need to be really switched on. That’s obviously very, very important, so you need to get it right on the first go.”
After practising the stages, which would be recorded, they go back to the hotel and watch the videos.
James’s preparation for a rally goes beyond mechanics and driving, though. Throughout the winter just gone, he and Arthur put in a big effort to make sure everything was dialled in. Being physically fit and having your head in the right place is of upmost importance.
James was seeing a sports performance psychologist through the Motorsports Ireland Academy and was also working with a personal trainer three nights a week. “Your head being in the right place is probably the most important thing. Things were going well this year. We had a good plan, fitness was good and that was proven when we went to the first event and won it. I’m looking forward now to getting back at that.”
Obviously, James was seeing a personal trainer to improve his physical fitness, which he says is extremely important in rallying to keep you focused.
“Temperatures get very high inside the car, your physical fitness is very important so you’re not getting tired or that you don’t start thinking about something else. Your physical fitness is the key to your mental awareness, basically. If you’re tired, you’re not thinking straight and you’re just not fully aware.
Some mornings before events I could be sick in my stomach. Arthur, he’s always rearing to go
“Also, with the level of the car we’re driving, there’s a minimum weight you can be. Myself and Arthur were more or less on that minimum weight, 75kg. So if our weight is at the minimum, the car is obviously as light as it can be. That all counts for seconds,” he explains.
Very honestly, James says before a rally he would get nervous.
“Some mornings before events I could be sick in my stomach. Arthur, he’s always rearing to go. I think everyone has their own way in that regard. When you get going and get the helmet on, it’s like someone flicks a switch and you’re just away at that point.
“Whenever you get started and get going, it’s good craic. Certainly, you have to enjoy it. There wouldn’t be much point in doing it if you weren’t enjoying it. For the build-up beforehand I would be pretty focused, I would kind of isolate myself and just keep focused.”
Finance and safety
Financially, rallying can be quite an expensive sport. James says you can get involved in a cheap enough way to start, but at the higher levels the money that needs to be put in is much more substantial. These days, he points out, you’re not just talking about sponsors, but also investors.
Since he began keeping his car in Letterkenny, he jokes that the evenings he would have spent in the garage are now spent working to help finance it.
In terms of safety in rallying, James feels things have come a long way. Rules and regulations in the sport are stringent and cars are as safe as they can be with roll cages and fire extinguisher systems. At the top level also, you have to get into the car fully alert, he says.
“In the car there’s nothing really more you can do than be at the top of your game. Obviously, physical fitness brings that. If you’re getting into the car at the top level tired or just unfocused, the chances are an accident could happen.
Unfortunately we lost Manus Kelly last year in Donegal. It’s a dangerous sport, but there’s safety measures in place to make it as safe as can be
“Some of the accidents in the World Championship are absolutely huge and both driver and co-driver can walk away, but there’s that chance of a freak accident where something might happen.
“Unfortunately we lost Manus Kelly last year in Donegal. It’s a dangerous sport, but there’s safety measures in place to make it as safe as can be.”
Going forward, James is excited for rallies to start up again and will be just taking things as they come.
“I never really tended to think far ahead. I have a yearly plan, I stick to it and execute it as best I can. It was never something I did plan overly far ahead.
“I just do what I need to do to keep my head on in the moment; do it the best I can, enjoy it and then see what comes next.
“You’re just enjoying what you have in the here and now, because obviously not everything lasts for ever and maybe sponsors won’t always be there. So I just think it’s important to focus on the now.”
Favourite car: Porsche
Personal hero: Billy Coleman. They say the only thing he ever rolled was a combine harvester, he never rolled a car.
Person who taught you how to drive: A mixture of a few people. Probably more seriously when I got into rally cars it would have been my dad and my uncle. I had a lot of input and advice from a whole lot of people, which was good.
Favourite place to drive: Killarney. Anytime you go up Moll’s Gap, it’s probably some of the best scenery you’ll see anywhere in the world, I think.
Best driving song: Highway to Hell by ACDC.
Read more
First gear: an introduction to motorsports in Ireland
Second Gear: the Machine Deane and the Drift Queen
Third Gear: Billy Coleman reflects on 20 years of rallying
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