Keith and Sara are ready to motor in Sligo
ONE interesting entry on this FAAC Simply automatic/Sligo Park Hotel Rally is that of Castlebar’s Keith and Sara McFadden.
Last July, Sara (17) became the first visually impaired person to compete in Irish rallying when she competed with her father Keith in a Renault Clio on the Imokilly Rally in Cork. Having successfully satisfied the criteria laid down by Motorsport Ireland (MI) and the National Council for the Blind in Ireland (NCBI), Sara received her competition licence from Motorsport Ireland that allowed her achieve a long time ambition.
She was born with albinism - a genetic disorder typified by the partial or complete absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes. She also suffers from Nystagmus, a condition where her eyes move on a constant basis due to the fact that the muscles behind them never developed correctly.
Sara is certainly determined, “I think one should do everything they want to do.” At Davitt College in Mayo her teachers are a constant source of support and as she cannot see the blackboard so she works through an i-Pad and her teachers email the notes to her.
Several visits to a kart track in Tynagh, County Galway provided the safe location allowing Sara to hone her skills as a co-driver. The shakedown stage in Cork dismissed any concerns that her father may have harboured, he quipped. “She is better than some of my former co-drivers.”
While they retired with a fuel pump issue in Cork, this weekend’s Sligo Rally gives them another opportunity to compete. In Cork she said, “It was a pure rush, I just want to keep going.”
She even managed to bring her dad out of a five-year rally sabbatical - albeit with some help from her mum Sandra and sister Vanessa.