Enniskillen’s Timmy Cathcart failed to finish the Jim Clark Memorial Rally at the weekend, but the results of the second round of the British Championship were overshadowed by the tragic accident that claimed the lives of three spectators.

Timmy had been hoping for a good result in his Citroen DS3 following a disappointing seventh placed finish on the first round of the series, the Pirelli Rally, but his hopes of adding more points to his total ended with a crash on the Friday evening. He was on his way home on Saturday when he heard the news that his friend and fellow competitor David Carney had gone off the road with fatal consequences.

“It was a bad weekend. It was tragic what happened,” he said. “We had left and were getting the boat home when we heard. I would be quite friendly with David and he was running just in front of us on the event. It was terrible and I think he is just in complete shock at the moment. I know the place where it happened and it was a very dangerous place for any spectators to be standing, but it’s difficult to keep everything under control on an event that size. It was just one of those things.” Timmy’s event ended on just the second stage of the tarmac event. “It was a slippery section and we were carrying too much speed through it and the car got out of control,” he recalled. “I lost the back end and then it snapped back around again and that was the end of the weekend. The damage was very superficial bodywork damage but it was enough to stop us getting out and running again.” Timmy changed from a Fiesta to a Citroen at the start of the new season and he admits it is taking time to get used to the characteristics of his new car. “It takes a lot of adjusting to to be honest,” he said. “The Citroen has a turbo and it hard to get traction and grip with the front wheel drive and the turbo. It’s a bit different. We have only had maybe three or four events in the car so we have had limited time in it. With the expense we are keeping it to maybe a shakedown before the rally and then the rally itself.” Despite the poor start to the year Timmy is looking to turn it around with a good result on the Scottish Rally at the end of June, and he admits he may look further afield to gain more experience later in the season. “I would hope to do the rest of the British Championship but at the moment the championship isn’t looking too good for us because we have had trouble at the start of the year,” he said. “We are maybe thinking about branching out to do a couple of European rounds just to get the experience of the stages over there. We are looking at all the options at the moment.”