Barry sees potential for success in Oran

Oran England and Darragh Mullen were the stars of a rally launch, along with their Peugeot 208 Rally4, at Lough Owel Motors in Mullingar on Friday evening.

Oran is from Cavan, Darragh is from Sligo, though he has strong links to north Westmeath, and the first rally of their new campaign is this coming weekend, the Yeats Ridge Forestry Rally, also in Sligo.

Barry Coleman, dealer principal at Lough Owel Motors, the main Peugeot dealers here, is backing the young rallying pair this year. Barry has a background in club rallying and competed against Oran’s father, Timmy, some years ago. He also supplies vans to his business, TEE Fire Safety Solutions.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner at the launch event, Barry recalled that in their rallying days he and Timmy enjoyed competing on the same events, and had mutual friends and a good connection.

“Oran’s going to be good, he’s going to be big and it’s big news,” Barry predicted of 20-year-old Oran’s future on the stages.

He has already proven his speed in karting, which he began in 2014 and where he set the pace in Junior IAME X30 and won the Irish Senior X30 title in 2022/23.

Barry said Oran has the talent to go for the Billy Coleman Award this year: “To get to that level would be fantastic, and, looking at Oran, he has the talent, he has the speed, and we have a little bit of a promotional factor to go along with that. He switched to a Peugeot 208 last year and I thought this is the opportunity to jump on board now, and do something better, something bigger. So we put a little bit more behind it for this year and hopefully that support will help – it can be from the facilities that we see here tonight, or it can be on the stages – it’s great to be involved.” Barry is planning to get out on the rallies to spectate and to keep a close eye as the season progresses. His own rally car, a Honda Civic, sits in a shed at home “gathering dust”.

“Every year we promise ourselves we’ll get out for a spin… maybe this year.”