Important Notice

'The Fisher Foundation is currently reviewing its programmes of activity and the areas the Foundation support including The Fisher Foundation Rally Safety Award and The Fisher Foundation Young Driver Training Award. Further information will be posted on the website at a later date'.



Motor Sport Safety Initiatives

Safety in rallying was always of paramount importance to Bertie Fisher, especially the safety of spectators, marshals, officials and competitors. During the early 1980's, Bertie became increasingly aware of the need for an improvement in safety standards in Irish rallies.

To highlight the urgency in addressing this problem, Bertie, already one of the top Irish rally drivers, withdrew from competitive rallying in 1986 to enable him to assist event organisers in the promotion and implementation of improved spectator safety standards. The trustees of the Fisher Foundation therefore feel it appropriate to continue supporting motor sport safety initiatives in recognition of Bertie's long established interest in this particular aspect of rallying.

Bertie Fisher with Austin Frazer in the spectator control car

Bertie Fisher and Austin Frazer in their role as
Rally Safety Officers in the
Donegal International Rally in 1986.

The Fisher Foundation will support two separate initiatives, each promoting the continued development of safety in motor sport:

1. The Fisher Foundation Rally Safety Awards.

Applications are invited from Motor Clubs and other relevant organisations associated with rallying, seeking to improve safety standards on rally events. This may include:

2. The Fisher Foundation Young Driver Training Award.

This award will enable a young rally driver to participate in an agreed training programme in 2006, agreed between the Foundation and the successful applicant. The training programme may involve personal tuition or participation in a relevant training school. Costs covered may include the travel costs, hire fees and other direct training costs.

The overall aim of the award is to raise the driver's safety awareness and develop safe driving skills, with the overall aim of helping to improve safety standards in rallying.

Mark at the wheel of a 206 during testing for the Acropolis

Mark Fisher at the wheel of the Peugeot 206 WRC
during testing for the Acropolis Rally in Greece in 2000.

Applications are invited from Young Drivers permanently resident in Ireland, who have registered for the Junior Category in either the current year's Irish Tarmac International Rally Championship, or the British International Rally Championship.

Priority will be given to those applicants, who, in the opinion of the trustees, will benefit most from this opportunity.

[Top]


Applications

The Fisher Foundation is currently reviewing its programmes of activity and the areas the Foundation support including The Fisher Foundation Rally Safety Award and The Fisher Foundation Young Driver Training Award. Further information will be posted on the website at a later date.

[Top]


Spectator Safety Briefing

Spectator safety was the main concern of Bertie Fisher so an appropriate addition to the web site should be a briefing that spectators can learn from.

The diagrams Below are visual representations of different types of junctions. The Red areas indicate danger areas and should be avoided when spectating. The black arrows indicate the direction of travel of the rally cars.

If you want to print the following diagrams and text you should open this PDF file. It will give you more control and keep everything on 1 page. If you want to save a copy of these images and the related text you should choose this file. Once you have downloaded this file we would appreciate if you would send it on to other people that you know.

Safety diagrams for spectators at Rallying events

If you want to print the diagrams above and the following text you should open this PDF file. It will give you more control and keep everything on 1 page.

Below is a brief summary of how to spectate safety. If the drivers know this is being implemented then there will be more excitement to see as the drivers will be able to drive faster.

Don't

  • Stand on the track

  • Stand below the level of the track

  • Stand in front of arrows or signs

  • Stand in prohibited areas

  • Stand or sit on or near log piles, walls or fences

  • Sit close to the edge of the track

  • Block escape routes

  • Be distracted

  • Play games with your safety or that of the drivers

  • Remove stage signs or arrows

  • Be the one to stop the stage

Always

  • Expect the unexpected

  • Listen for approaching cars

  • Remain alert

  • Leave yourself room to move quickly

  • Plan your own escape routes

  • Try to keep behind something solid

  • Keep children under supervision

  • Keep dogs on a lead

  • Do as the marshal's ask

  • Help the marshal's to run a safe stage

Please protect

  • Yourself

  • Others around you

  • The stage you are spectating at

  • Rallying

  • Motorsport

Be Sure That

  • The unexpected can happen

  • If you ignore the marshal's instructions the stage will be stopped

[Top]


Bertie's involvement in rallying

Bertie standing on the bridge in Ballinamallard with Fisher Engineering in the background. Photograph courtesy of Raymond Humphreys. Few, if any, rally drivers in Ireland have been more involved in rallying over the past thirty years than Bertie Fisher. He is instantly recognised as being the most successful rally driver of all time on Irish rallies, having won twenty International events on his way to a record four Irish Tarmac Rally Championships.

Bertie's involvement in rallying however extended over a much wider range of activities than just driving. He began his rally career as a co-driver before moving into the driving seat. Over the next thirty years he played an active role as a committee member of Enniskillen Motor Club, a rally safety officer, a committee member of the Irish Rally Competitors Association, a committee member of the Tarmac Rally Organisers Association Advisory Committee, a sponsor and an Event Liaison Officer on the 2000 Summit Rally. It was on this event that Bertie also took on a fund-raising role and played a very major part in raising £50,000 for local charities.

The Ballinamallard driver entered his first Circuit of Ireland Rally in 1968 as a co-driver to Ernie Campbell in an 848cc Mini, and in 1971 bought his first of several Minis. Over the next thirty years he drove various models of Ford Escorts, Opels and Subaru's, interspersed by shorter periods in Ford Sierra Cosworth's and BMWs

Highlights from the 'Escort' years, (1973 - 1983), include his first Group 1 win on the Circuit of Ireland in 1973; the start of a career-long partnership in 1975 with Sidney Meeke, who thereafter was to prepare all of Bertie's cars; establishing an eleven-year partnership with co-driver Austin Frazer in 1978, and of course, the 'famous' CIL 999 Escorts, one of which was to provide him with his first international win in the 1982 Ulster Rally and a 3rd place on the Manx International Rally in the same year. These results were to lead to the signing of a contract with G.M.Dealer Sport to drive an Opel Ascona and subsequently various Mantas from 1983 to 1988.

The 'Manta' years were to see Bertie gain a great deal of experience on both tarmac and gravel surfaces as he became a much more mature driver. The contract with G.M.Dealer Sport included a long-term sponsorship deal with Shell Oils, and during the mid-eighties Bertie contested the British Rally Championship for GM, in a team with Jimmy McRae and Russell Brookes. It was during this period that he began what was to become a long-term sponsorship relationship with Kieran McAnallen, initially under the 'Alumac' banner, but from 1990 onwards, under the more familiar 'Toughmac' banner.

Bertie achieved many excellent results during this period with podium finishes on the 'Circuit', 'Ulster', 'Manx' and 'Scottish' rallies, the highlights of this period being a 9th overall on the RAC World Championship Rally and 1st overalls on the 1987 Donegal International and the Manx National rallies.

The 1986 Galway International Rally was to have a major effect on Bertie's rally career. Already concerned about spectator control on Irish rallies, it was following his much publicised brake-failure incident on the Galway rally, when it was only due to Bertie's skill and quick reactions in avoiding a major spectator accident, that Bertie decided to take time out of rallying. But instead of walking away from the problem, he lent his experience and support to rally organisers in a committed effort over the next year in tackling the difficulties, and which was eventually to see a major improvement in spectator control and safety standards throughout Ireland.

The early '90s witnessed several major changes in Bertie's rally programme. At the end of 1989, Austin Frazer retired after 11 years as Bertie's co-driver, due to work commitments. Rory Kennedy was invited to take over the vacant seat, which he did most effectively for the remainder of Bertie's rally career. Having bought a BMW from Prodrive for the 1989/1990 seasons, Bertie further strengthened this link by buying his first Subaru Legacy in 1992 and thereafter remained loyal to Prodrive for the supply of all his subsequent rally cars.

Successes came thick and fast during the nineties, with Tarmac Championship wins in 1990, 1992, 1993 and 1996 and a further 18 international wins, including 3 Circuit of Irelands rallies and an impressive 6 Killarney 'Rally of the Lakes' successes. Bertie was less active as a competitor from 1999, devoting his time and support to his son Mark, who was rapidly developing into a very successful rally driver with a brilliant career ahead of him. Sadly his potential was never to be realised.

Only in retrospect is it possible to fully appreciate Bertie's influence and commitment to rallying during his 30 year-long involvement in the sport. His dedication, competitiveness and above all, his integrity, are truly an example to us all.

Austin Frazer

A more comprehensive history of Bertie's achievements can be found here.

[Top]


Mark's involvement in rallying

Mark Fisher pictured after his first Nissan Micra class win in Donegal 1996 Mark started out in his rallying career by helping out with service crews gaining a background knowledge of rallying, whilst he saved up to buy his first rally car. When Harry Cathcart was selling his Suzuki Swift, Mark decided that the time was right to get into the driving seat.

Mark wasn't the fastest driver out of the blocks but there was something different about Mark that set him apart from the rest of the pack. He was hungry for advice, knowledge, and to learn from the experience that I had gained as a rally driver and was willing to genuinely listen. His dedication to rallying became apparent very early on as he spent every spare moment he had working on the car that he had at the time. His attention to detail in preparing for each event was meticulous not only to his car's setup but his mental approach.

Mark was consistently seeking advice and coming up with original ideas which showed that he could not only work harder but smarter. This is what made him different. Probably his biggest step forward was fitting an in-car camera where we could analyze the footage after each event to see what mistakes had been made. Mark wanted to identify his weaknesses as fast as possible so that he could turn them around immediately into his strengths. He understood that practice made permanent (and not perfect) so he wanted to practice correct technique. This was a direct off-shoot of the value that his father instilled in all of his children that if you are going to do something then do it right.

Mark's maturity was staggering for his age and he had a remarkable ability to negotiate. This became apparent when he rented an Impreza from ProDrive on the condition that they worked from my garage. The same thing happened with Peugeot but his thinking behind it was to let me see how the teams worked. Mark would never let anyone else set his cars up due to the trust that we had built up over the years. This trust could not be passed on to a total stranger and maintained.

I would say that Mark's strongest point was his thoughtfulness for others. He was a mischievous character at times, but it never went beyond that to the point of foolishness. He was a unique individual who consistently considered everyone else before himself.

Gerry McGarrity

[Top]


How to get involved in rallying

Bertie and Rory flat out There are so many facets to rallying such as driving, co-driving, navigation rallying, marshalling and organising events that it would be difficult to give them the necessary in-depth coverage on this website. A good quality resource that you should check out is the rallycodriver.co.uk website. It covers all the previously mentioned facets in greater depth and would be the ideal starting point.





[Top]