Shootout bonus for Harvey
Letterkenny’s Conor Harvey has been chosen as the wildcard to represent Ireland at the forthcoming Fiesta SportingTrophy International Shootout on December 3rd and 4th. The 22-year-old will compete against 33 other hopefuls, including Alastair Fisher and Jonathan Greer for the chance to win a 12-month contract in M-Sport working with the BP Ford World Rally Team during the 2008 season.
Harvey’s performance in the FST IE series this year gained him admiration from all corners of the sport. He led the series after victory on round 2, the UAC Easter Rally and maintained his lead of the series after another win on round three, the Killarney Rally. A battle royale with Alastair Fisher emerged on his home event, the Donegal International Rally but he still held onto his lead of the series despite finishing third in the event after a final stage time loss.
However, a non-finish on round five, the Cork Forestry Rally pushed him back to third overall in the series. Conor’s impressive pace continued on the Fisher Engineering Lakeland Stages where a solid third place finish earned him the right to a three-way battle for the overall title on the final round of the championship, the Cork ‘20’ Rally. Harvey concluded the season in third place, having finished all but one event and finishing on the podium on five of the seven rounds.
The two-day Shootout will consist of physical, psychological and media tests before the competitors demonstrate their driving skills at the Greystoke forest stage.
:: The physical test will be conducted by M-Sport Personal Trainer Barry Johnson who is an active competitor representing Great Britain in Triathlons across the world.
:: The psychological test will be in the form of a 25-question assessment developed in conjunction with Hugh Richards from Edinburgh University Sports Psychology Department. This will determine if the competitors’ mental strength is compatible with that of a leading competition driver.
:: As each country will bring their leading journalist and competitors will face this media panel in a press conference format to see how they react under pressure to gain their points in the media section.
:: On the final day competitors will be assessed on their driving abilities on a 4km forest stage, with three runs undertaken and the best two times combined to give their stage time.
The top five competitors at this point will be selected for probably their toughest test; an interview with M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson. The winner of the Shootout will be announced at the end of the second day.
FST Co-ordinator, Ciara Conlan stated:
“Conor has been a pleasure to have in the series this year. His results speak for themselves and his pace on the Cork Forestry before retiring and on the Lakeland Stages shows that he is a capable driver on both tarmac and gravel. I think Conor will represent Ireland well at the Shootout.”
Harvey remarked:
“It’s great to be given the opportunity to compete against such a wide variety of drivers from all round the world. It will be a good basis to compare my driving standards although I didn’t win the championship. It is still great to be picked out. It will be tough with the gravel stage, my least favoured surface, but I hope I can make up for this in the other areas of the assessment.”