THE Scottish champion driver, June Henderson Laird, has succeeded in beating her own record for driving through all 32 counties of Ireland while starting and finishing in the same place.
She and navigator husband, James, arrived back at Guinleys Bridge on the Cork Kerry border at 7.44 a.m. yesterday, completing the trip in 16 hours and 44 minutes.
This breaks the record June had set in 1990 of 17 hours and 57 minutes. In 1992, when the record was administered by the Guinness Book of Records, the 1990 time was broken by a team driving through all 32 counties in 12 hours land 19 minutes. Their improved time had been helped by an increase in the national speed limit from 55 mph to 60 mph.
Also, they did not finish at their starting point and this cut 120 miles off their journey.
The record is no longer published in the Guinness Book of Records. It is recorded by the Record and Speed Challenges Association. It declared void the 1992 time after setting down the criteria that the car must start and finish bin the same place. This returned the record to Ms Henderson Laird.
"We were determined to smash the record once and for all," Mr Henderson Laird said yesterday. "We put a lot into this ... June is absolutely shattered ... she's fallen flat with exhaustion."
The two had to keep to the speed limit and they used a tachograph to measure times and speeds. They had hoped to complete the course in 15 hours 30 minutes but were hampered by fog.
"Up in Sligo and Mayo there was 15 yards visibility last night," Mr Henderson Laird said of Tuesday night's conditions.
This was made worse, he said, by the quality of the roads in the 26 counties. "Compared to the North, the condition of the roads, especially in the West, is appalling ... on one road it was like driving on a sheet of corrugated iron," said Mr Henderson Laird.
