Kellys overcome Customs issues to enjoy forest rally Down Under

FRANK and Lauren Kelly’s recent trip to Western Australia was never meant to be a relaxing holiday and that was probably a good thing because their participation in the Forest Rally very nearly didn’t happen as Custom delays almost put paid to months of planning and preparation.

The father and daughter from Moy had been invited over to race in the round of the Australian Rally Championship by Trillick native Gary Mills around Christmas time last year and ever since then, plans and preparation for their trip began.

But nine weeks after they put their famous Mk II Ford Escort, ‘Baby Blue’ on a container ship, all that work appeared as if it would be for nought.

Frank and Lauren actually landed in Perth before their car and once ‘Baby Blue’ arrived the drama began as Customs officials put a hold on the vehicle, refusing to allow it off the ship and refusing to acknowledge the Kelly’s 20 page carry document, which cost them £1200.

Having then paid an additional £3500 – which they will get back once the car leaves the country – for a temporary import of their car, they thought the process would be over and they could put their plans into action, but again, Customs officials had other ideas. However, just over a week after arriving at Freemantle port, ‘Baby Blue’ was eventually released, but only after their plans had been put into disarray.

“Before she came off the ship the shipper said Customs had put a hold on our container and they refused to accept our carry document, which they hadn’t even seen at that point,” Frank explained.

“I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t accept it so we asked ‘if they don’t, what do we do?’ so we were told we’d have to do a temporary import, which was £3500 sterling!

“We got that done, but she was still on hold and they don’t tell you when she’s off hold. You [the shipping company] have to check every hour on the hour to see if she’s on the list and that kept going from the Wednesday till the following Wednesday and she eventually came off hold.

“But then they said she had to be fumigated, which, again, we couldn’t understand because she had to be fumigated once before when they opened the container. So that was a 24 hour process and 12 hours to vent after that before they would unload it and inspect.

“It was getting down to the wire – we had planned the weekend before [the rally] to test the car and to take sponsors and VIP’s for joyrides to thank them for their commitment to us but that all had to be cancelled.

“The recce was on the Wednesday or Thursday and we still didn’t have a car, so long story short, around 2pm on the Thursday, she came off hold, was inspected and released. Thankfully there were no further issues so we got her and drove four hours down to Nannup with the car on a trailer, got her through scrutineering that night and went out onto the stages on Friday.

“So the first time we had driven the car was driving it to the first stage!”

Fortunately the rally went much smoother for Frank and Lauren who, despite having to deal with some fairly thick mud rather than red dirt after some unseasonal heavy rain, bedded themselves in as they got used to MRF tyres for the first time, enjoying a close battle with Donegal native, Glenn Alcorn’s Toyota Corolla.

Kelly eventually sealed a podium finish in the two-wheel-drive Classic Cup, after overcoming a puncture and missing third gear on the second half of the Make Smoking History Forest Rally’s opening day of action.

“It was fantastic bar the Customs handlin!,” he exclaimed.

“The people in Perth, Freemantle, all down to Nannup where the rally was run, you couldn’t ask for better. You’d think you were a celebrity or something the way we were lifted, laid and looked after.

“If we could have got Customs to look after us as well we’d have been on a winner!

“They were class stages, we enjoyed ourselves and finishing third in the 2WD ARC was more than we expected given the conditions and given what had happened, so we’re very happy with that.

“All in all it worked out fierce well, the competitors, the media and the spectators were all fantastic and half, if not three-quarters of Ireland must live in Perth! It was unreal. At the ceremonial start on the Friday night, if you closed your eyes you would have thought you were in Ireland, there was nothing but Irish accents.

“A lot of them seemed to come to see us, which was nice.”

The Kellys will now keep their car in Australia for the foreseeable future with the plan being to compete in at least one more event in the country in the next couple of months. In the meantime, they finished fifth upon their return to Irish action at the Laois Heartlands Rally, which they used to prepare for the upcoming Donegal International Rally.