Macbeth in a Mk2 Escort. Only Hollywood come could up with such a thing. But, if one of Scotland’s most powerful literary figures was going to drive one of the world’s most popular rally cars, it would have to be a good one. The right one. The best one. The sort of Mk2 Hollywood itself would build.
The one Michael Fassbender drove at last year’s Rally of the Lakes.
That’s right, Michael Fassbender, the Oscar-nominated actor. The one who’s starred in the work of legendary directors Ridley Scott and Danny Boyle. The one who went to school in Fossa, Killarney with Paul Nagle.
Something amiss at May Bank Holiday? We can help you with that. And so can Fassbender.
Killarney’s biggest motorsport event – the Rally of the Lakes – runs on that May holiday every year. Except this year. In an effort to ease the pain, Fassbender’s released part one of a video trilogy charting his progress on the event. In what’s now, officially, the world’s most famous Mk2 (forget Ari Vatanen’s Black Beauty or Roger Clark’s Cossack car), you’ll get to see this Kerryman do what all Kerrymen (and women) are born to do: build the revs then drop the clutch off the line at the bottom of Moll’s Gap.
This year’s event was lost to coronavirus and, having seen what the rally means to the town and the people 12 months ago, Fassbender wanted to offer something to distract fans around the world from the current pandemic predicament. Part two follows next Tuesday (May 19) with the conclusion coming on Tuesday May 26.
Fassbender said: “I hope people will enjoy the film and find ways to support the local events that mean a great deal to them during these uncertain times. Here’s to the next forty years of the Rally of the Lakes.”
There’s nothing new about Fassbender stepping into a competition car. He is, don’t forget, a Ferrari Challenge North America race winner as well as a Porsche Super Sport Cup regular. But it’s one thing knowing how much kerb to take through Hockenheim’s NordKurve, it’s quite another setting about two days of the most demanding Tarmac rallying in the world.
Fortunately, Fassbender was born to it. And certainly raised among it in Killarnery.
He said: “All my early memories are around cars, it’s such an addictive hobby. I’ve always felt called to it.”
The man calling the event to him was fellow Killarney local Barry Goodman.
Come back to DirtFish on Wednesday, for the inside line on how a game of five-a-side almost brought the whole project to a halt.
While Fassbender wasn’t actually competing on the rally (he was running as an ambassador), Craig Breen was. And it wasn’t just the Hollywood star who achieved a lifetime ambition on that weekend. Breen did too. He won.
“I was so chuffed,” said Breen. “It was just the perfect weekend. We had fantastic weather, a great result and some sort of craic with Michael and Tommy. Honestly, the stories coming from those two were just incredible. Sitting having a pint with them… it was one of the most bizarre but brilliant and unforgettable moments of my life.”
And the names just keep on dropping. Tommy is Tommy Byrne, former Formula 1 driver and Fassbender’s driver coach in America.
Byrne has, according to Breen, done good work with Fassbender.
“He drove very well,” said Breen, “and that Escort wouldn’t have been the easiest thing to drive, it’s some piece of kit that. But what a fantastic fella. Really, really humble and down-to-earth, no airs and graces. He left on a positive note, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him back again. You’d be better asking his old school pal about that…”
We did.
“He was in the year above me at school,” said Nagle. “Was he a good lad? Yeah, I think so. Jeez, David, that’s a lot of years ago now. He hadn’t changed at all, still a good Killarney boy. I did a bit of pacenote work with him just before the rally and he was brilliant, he really got it. What a weekend that was. Craig’s right, it was fantastic. I became the first Kerryman ever to win the Lakes that weekend. It was special.”
And what about that Escort?
Is it really an Escort? Depends on your take on the modern spin on a historic classic. Three-way adjustable Reigers, six-speed sequential gearbox complete with paddles and flat-shift mated to a Millington motor offering 70bhp more than even Boreham’s latter-day fuel-injected RS1800s could muster.
Escort or spaceship, it was enough to get Fassbender’s attention.
“Taking a corner,” he said, “if the back wheels get on the gravel, it starts moving and it starts sliding, that really scared me.
“The first couple of runs I had to remind myself to breathe.”
Watch the video and don’t forget to come back tomorrow to find out how it all nearly never happened. How Killarney might have missed its Hollywood moment.
