James O’Brien: ‘Very often when I’m calling the notes, I’m calling them blind’

James O’Brien, from Dromtarriffe in north-west Cork, was named Clubman of the Year at the 2016 Motorsport Ireland Awards. He won the National Rally Championship as co-driver to Roy White this year and has over three decades of navigating experience.

Q: I was watching some of your in-car videos on YouTube. Is there one thing people don’t understand about being a co-driver?

A: When you’re looking at that video, you’re looking out the front window the whole time. What they’ve done with the cars is tried to get the centre of gravity down, so the navigator is pushed lower into the car and further back.