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June 2009
The site for this track was an old quarry to the west side of Cork, just over the hill from the village of Dripsey. The quarry housed a washing plant for sand and gravel that ceased working in the late 1970s. The surface that had been left behind however, was a little un welcoming. Gravel and stone with huge piles of slate rock, covered in 30 years of vegetation. When the sun is shining the west side of Cork has to be one of the most beautiful places in the whole world and walking around in a jungle of thistles and foxgloves, it was clear that but for the surface, this old quarry could be a very special track. The centre of the quarry had a hill that on close inspection turned out to be washed sand, an unbelievable stroke of luck. Tens of thousands of tonnes, all left over from the quarrying process.
The first part of the build was with a D6 bulldozer. The stony ground seemed to blade well, the slate stone crushing up under the weight of the machine, with the finish surface looking remarkably like road base. Once the layout was formed, the trees and vegetation were stripped from the sand hill by excavator, and the clean material was deposited around the track by dump truck. A foot of washed sand was placed around the entire 2 kilometre lap and thanks to the size of machinery involved, the process was complete in just 5 days.
With only 5 takeoffs on the entire track you could be forgiven for thinking that perhaps this was a little tame. Thanks to the sand we used to surface the track and the undulating nature of the layout, It turned out to be a real lung burster! With the sun shining every day of the job, I can honestly say, hand on heart, this was one of my all time favourite tracks.
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