TWO months after his last competitive outing, Ballygurteen’s Michael Keohane (Century Motorsport) returns to the Porsche Carwow Carrera Cup Great Britain series this weekend for rounds seven and eight that will mark the halfway point of the campaign.

His return to motorsport after 22 years certainly cannot be described as a baptism of fire as he has adapted to saloon car racing extremely well.

However, the pace needed to be competitive is seriously quick and like every racer the temptation to mix it with the opposition is hard to resist.

‘I have to concentrate on the Masters’ category, probably something that cost me championship points in the earlier rounds, but I am really enjoying the series and competing with Century Motorsport, they’re attention to detail is superb,’ Keohane said.

Naturally, returning to circuits where he was a regular during his British Formula 3 days brings obvious comparisons. A recent test at Thruxton, a 2.356 mile circuit located near the village of Thruxton in Hampshire, went well.

‘Like here, the weather was really hot and with the lay-off it was certainly an experience putting on the racing suit and then getting inside the cockpit of the car – the heat was incredible.’

Meticulous in his record keeping, a look at his file on his last outing in Thruxton (September 22nd, 2002) when he finished second to Heikki Kovalainen brought back great memories and also some important information.

‘I saw the notes I had made on the map of the circuit, they will come in useful. You know what, not much has changed in that time apart from the fact that I will be in the Porsche as opposed to the F3 car. Yes, simulators are now an integral part of racing.’

It will be a busy few days in Thruxton with two 45-minute test sessions on Friday, two 15-minute qualifying sessions on Saturday (9.30am and 1.30pm) and Sunday’s races at 10.50am and 3.20pm. The second half of the series will see Keohane return to Donington Park for rounds nine and ten on August 23rd. For now though, it's all about Thruxton.

***

In rallying, Clonakilty's Cal McCarthy (Citroen C3 Rally2) competes in Saturday's Carryduff Forklift Rallye Lecale in Downpatrick, County Down. This is a new event in the Northern Ireland Rally calendar with McCarthy using the rally as a shakedown for two other rallies in the province – the Ulster Rally (August 7th/8th) and the Down Rally (August 22nd) .

It’s his first rally since early May when he took a fine fourth overall in the Manx National Rally. Indeed, he just missed out on the final spot of the podium by a mere seven tenths of a second.

With McCarthy's regular co-driver Rosscarbery's Eric Calnan having agreed to co-drive for Ballynahinch's Gary Rodgers (Citroen C3 Rally2), McCarthy was meant to be co-driven by Bandon's Stephen Quin, who unfortunately is now not available. On Tuesday afternoon, he had secured the services of Strabane's Peter Ward, who has considerable experience of Rally2 cars and will guide him through the day's eight stages aboard the Carbery Plastics/Clonakilty Park Hotel liveried Citroen. Two years ago McCarthy finished fourth overall in an event at nearby Bishopscourt.

'Given that it's about ten weeks since I last competed, it will take time to get up to speed again. Most of the others have been out on a more regular basis,’ McCarthy said.

McCarthy's DGM team-mate Carryduff's Jonny Greer (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) is the top seed and will be followed by Monaghan's Sam Moffett (Hyundai i20 N Rally2), with Greer holding a four-point advantage ahead of this fourth round of the campaign.

Barryroe co-driver Dylan Doonan partners Dungannon's Barry Morris (Darrian T90 GTR).

***

Last weekend's double-header Skibbereen and District Car Club Autotest at the Clonakilty Engineering complex in Laragh, Bandon resulted in wins for Ballinascarthy's Martin Walsh (Toyota Starlet Special) and Skibbereen's Liam Croston (Toyota Starlet).

According to the Stopastride Timing App, Walsh won Saturday's sixth round of the Partsworld Munster Autotest Championship by a margin of just 0.75s from Cork’s Liam Cashman (Vauxhall Nova) with Templemartin's Victor Beamish (Mini Special) 10.74s further behind third.

Sunday's seventh round of the Partsworld series was won by Croston (Toyota Starlet) from Walsh by a margin of 6.63s, with Limerick's Mike Mulcahy (Mini Special) 1.68s further behind in third. Elsewhere, Ballyvourney karter Keith Grant (Nissan Micra) took a double in the Junior category.