Ross Forde
Age: 24
Home Town: Galway,Ireland
Qualifications: Engineering diploma
College: GMIT
Occupation: Manufacturing manager
Rallying is a family affair to me, I was born into it and have grown to love it. My grandfather was car mad and passed it down to my 2 uncles who are all trained mechanics and all compete in motorsport at a high level. Uncle No.1 Frank Cunningham, he has won the USA rally championship many times both as a driver and a co-driver. In 2002 he won the championship in a private Mitsubishi Evo6 beating the factory Subaru Prodrive team.
Uncle No. 2 Ray Cunningham is very well known for his rally car preparation and owns the very successful business “Galway Mini Centre” He recently won the now world famous Killarney Rally stages. It’s with ray I started in motorsport, on the day of my sixteenth birthday. We competed in an Autocross event and I ended up winning the class and beating ray in the same car. I was still too young to hold a driving licence. I continued to compete in closed circuit events like sprints and hillclimbs up and down the country and have won my class on most occasions. At the age of 17 I started to co-drive my uncle frank in various historic minis and escorts. We competed in the Irish International Championship. By the second year I had won every international rally north and south of the border and to this day I am the youngest ever co-driver to have my name on the championship winning cup
At the age of 18 I borrowed my uncles championship winning mini and entered my first ever rally. Killarney historic rally, out of more than 100 entries I managed 9th overall and second in my class. The man who beat me was my uncle ray.
Since then I have competed in selected Junior and national rallies, these are just a sample of my results
Killarney junior 2004 – 5th overall and 1st in class
Killarney junior 2005 – 6th overall and 1st in class
Galway summer 2005 – 75th overall and 1st in class
Killarney international 2006 – seeded No 1 but mechanical failure
Roscommon moto stages 2006 – 1st overall and 1st in class
Roscommon moto stages 2007 – Joint 1st overall and 1st in class