https://dirtfish.com/rally/rallying-around-the-world-but-with-a-modest-budget/

They've rallied a Toyota in Thailand, a BMW in the Arctic and a Fiesta in Uruguay.

 They've taken on WRC candidate events, flown across the world to rally without a proper plan, been their own service crew, got engaged after Rally Barbados and got married in Rovaniemi before testing for the Arctic Rally two days later.

All just because they can.

 By its very nature, rallying is a nomadic sport. Forget the titles, the results or the stage times - very few people truly embody what rallying really is like Matt and Catherine Shinnors do.

 They're firmly among the most interesting people I've ever had the privilege of interviewing in rallying.

 Matt was raised in a motorsport family in Ireland before he graduated as an engineer, but was never destined for a straight-laced life. Taking a sabbatical, he travelled to New Zealand and worked for a race and rally team, which eventually led to him taking on WRC Rally New Zealand in 2006.

 Before that, all his rallying had been at home in a Mk2 Escort. Adventure suited him, he just needed someone to share it with.

 Catherine's family wasn't into rallying. But one of her sister's friends was heavily involved...

https://motorsport.ie/2025/12/18/around-the-world-in-80-stages-from-arctic-ice-to-african-dust/

Extract from Fastnet Rally Programme 2025 by Ruaidhri Nash

They say a couple that play together stay together, and there’s no better example of this than Cousane residents Matt and Catherine Shinnors, who have embarked on a small project over the past few years to compete in a rally on every continent. Calling a spade a spade, they’ve accepted that Antarctica might be a little difficult to achieve — but if there’s a chance to make it happen, they’ll make it happen. Matt hails from Bruff in Limerick and comes from an illustrious motorsport family with petrol running through their veins. Having competed for years on both tarmac and gravel, by day and by night, if it had wheels, it was used for some fun antics. This was never more evident than at some of the southern forestry rallies, where there could be up to six members of the Shinnors family competing in the same event. Having competed in a Mk2 Escort on a number of Irish forestry rallies, Matt was the first to take the plunge into the exotic — taking advantage of working in a rally school in New Zealand and jumping behind the wheel of a Lancer...

 Rallying Downunder – Part 2 Ozzie ➡️ Kiwi-Land

From the Australian Rally Championship last week to the Lone Star/Joe's Garage - Canterbury Rally, a round of the New Zealand Rally Championship this week. Back-to-back events on opposite sides of the Tasman.

Almost 20 years ago, I arrived in New Zealand with a backpack, chasing rally dreams. It was one of my first real rally adventures abroad. I was lucky enough to work with Rally Drive New Zealand in Hamilton and even got the chance to compete in a few North Island events including Rally NZ WRC.

Since then, Catherine Levis and I have rallied across the globe but it took a while to make it back to NZ. This was Catherine’s first time here. We almost made it for Otago in 2020, but Covid put a stop to that at the last minute.

New Zealand is absolutely stunning and the roads are even more spectacular. What better way to experience them than through the windscreen of a rally car?

Canterbury was a proper one-day rally: 9 stages, 140km of competitive mileage, no repeats stages, and service in different villages often roadside, just like the old-school Irish rallies. We were lucky...

We made the trip down under to Western Australia for Round 2 of the ARC - Australian Rally Championship, taking on the legendary Forest Rally last weekend. We wanted to see what these iconic ball-bearing gravel roads from the old WRC days were really like — and they didn’t disappoint!

We were behind the wheel of a true Aussie rally icon, the Datsun 1600 (Dato). From the ceremonial start on the beachfront at Busselton Jetty to the twisty, technical, and slippery stages around the historic and charming town of Nannup, it was a top-class event from start to finish.

Despite a few technical gremlins, we made it through every stage and crossed the finish line with a smile on our faces.
Fun fact: The Dato managed to complete the last three stages without any water pump — no mechanical or electric pump at all on the engine. 😮

I was expecting to see a handful of Irish ☘️ competitors, but it felt like every second car had at least one Irish accent onboard. Before the first stage control, a man from West Cork (Donagh O'Driscoll) climbed out of the co driver seat of the car in front, and a Cobh...

Patricia Denning and Catherine Shinnors will compete at the 2025 Rally Jameel; a 5-day navigation rally, which begins in Jordan on April 21st and concludes in Saudi Arabia, on April 26th. Rally Jameel is a demanding off-road endurance challenge that spans two countries and over 1,600 km of desert dunes, mountainous trails, and rocky terrain. The opening day’s challenge alone consists of a grueling 6 hour 40min stage in the day’s 300km of driving, starting in the historic city of Petra in Jordan. One of the most anticipated highlights of the route is the iconic Al-Ula Stage, a section used in the world-renowned Dakar Rally. This event will be a true test of endurance, off-road driving, and navigational skills, pushing both crew members to their limits in the intense heat and humidity.

Denning is one of Ireland’s top female rally drivers, with extensive experience across various surfaces. A two-time Ladies Forestry Rally Champion, her impressive track record includes multiple class championships in Rallycross, Autocross, Retrospective Rallies, and Endurance Trials. She holds the unique accolade of being the only female in Ireland to have won a Rallycross Super Final.  Having successfully completed Rally Jameel last year with a second-place finish in...

https://www.southernstar.ie/sport/from-bantry-to-barbados-catherines-racing-around-the-world-one-rally-at-a-time-4316759

An incredible journey across
five continents – and counting – for Bantry native Catherine Levis-Shinnors is woven by personal milestones, like engagement and marriage, into an international adventure of motorsport.

Not just from a sporting or tourism aspect, Catherine’s travels have immersed her and her husband Matt in the cultures and communities of each country they have visited.

Explaining the reason behind their various expeditions, Catherine laughed before joking, "It's probably madness between the two of us, I suppose! One of us is as bad as the other!"

Those personal milestones trip off her tongue with consummate ease.
"The very first rally we did was Barbados in 2012, and we got engaged there," she said.

It also had a lucky omen.
"I actually won €2,000 in the lotto and that covered the shipping of the car (a Ford Escort Mk. 2) on a banana boat!" Catherine said, and added, "Then, our second rally abroad was the Arctic Rally in Finland (2016) and we got married there just before the rally."

A sign on the rear of their BMW 325i E36M simply said "Just Married".

The obvious question of where they met and how it all began brought another rally...

https://kerrymotorsportnews.com/2024/11/30/history-maker-matt-shinnors-has-now-rallied-on-six-continents/

Matt Shinnors, a member of the Cork Motor Club, has etched his name in Irish motorsport history by competing as a rally driver on all six continents—a feat that positions him as potentially the first Irishman to achieve this milestone.

His journey culminated recently at the Rally del Atlántico in Uruguay, the final round of the FIA South American Rally Championship.

Driving a Ford Fiesta with his wife Catherine as co-driver, Shinnors faced mechanical issues on the opening day.

However, the resilient duo rejoined the event under Super Rally rules and successfully finished the challenging rally. Shinnors was full of praise for the Uruguayan stages, describing them as “fast, smooth, and flowing gravel roads, some of the best in the world.”

A journey across continents

Over the years, Shinnors has competed in some of the world’s most iconic and even unheard-of events.

His career has spanned tarmac and gravel to snow and mud—and he has driven an array of vehicles, including front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, and four-wheel drive cars in both left-hand and right-hand drive cars.

 2024    Chachoengsao Rally Thailand            

2018    Safari Rally Kenya 

2018    Shinshiro Rally Japan         

2016   ...

Privileged to drive a classic 1973 TE27 Corolla on the first round of the Thailand Rally in Chachoengsao Province Thailand

What a challenging rally. We survived the 40 degrees C heat over the weekend to bring the car home first in class.

Awesome job as usual by Catherine.

Thank you Thailand

Delighted to win the Mayo Motor Club's Frank Harrington Challenge in 2023 with the Evo 6.

Honered to be included in Michael O' Mahoney's Icons of Irish Rallying Book

Icons of Irish Rallying – The Shinnors Family

MATT

Matt started down the auto-cross road before switching to rallying.

He soon became a very well respected forest rally driver.

Matt won the rookie of the year in the National Forestry Championship in 2003 and was then a Billy Coleman Award Nominee in both 2003 and 2005.

Matt moved to Australia for a while and became a rally tutor in Rally Drive New Zealand and the WRX Experience in Australia.

Since then Matt has done the Arctic Rally with The Gorman Ridge in California next up followed by the Safari rally (Kenya) and the Shinshiro (Japan).

He was also crowned National Autocross Champion in 2018 and 2019. Wow....

Time to head back to New Zealand.

This time with Catherine and to the South Island for the Otago Rally.

We will drive a Magnum Motorsport classic rear wheel drive Toyota Starlet over the 280km two day event.

Check out the unseeded entry list. 

https://www.otagorally.com/home/competitors/entry-list

Matt retained the National Autocross Championship title in 2019.

After 6 rounds with three wins, two seconds and a third place driving his Subaru Imperza Matt clinched the title.

Matt was presented with champions award at the Champions of Irish Motorsport Awards 2019 in Citywest Hotel in Dublin on Tuesday, 10^th December.

At the Birr MC loose Autocross held in November 2019, the entry list included ten members of the Shinnors family from Bruff Co. Limerick.

Not an everyday occurrence in Irish Motorsport circles, we may need to scour the autocross archives to see if it is a record.

Left to Right: Austin Shinnors, Timo Shinnors, Catherine Shinnors, Alan Shinnors, Matt Shinnors, Greg Shinnors, Joe Snr Shinnors, Joe Jnr Shinnors, Elaine Shinnors and George Shinnors 

Today, (December 4th) at the Champions of Irish Motorsport Awards in the Mansion House Dublin Matt recieved his award for the National Autocross championship.

Article by Gazoo about our Shinshiro Rally adventure

https://gazoo.com/article/oneesan/181110.html

Footage of Matt and Catherine chatting about their rallying adventures on the @SixOClockShow chat show on @VirginMedia_One (TV3)

The Irish Independent, Ireland's national news paper did a feature on Matt & Catherine unique rally story......

https://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/motor-sport/rallying-the-world-with-your-wife-irish-couple-living-their-dream-racing-all-over-the-globe-37073742.html

Matt Shinnors (40) and his other half Catherine (37) are living their dream, taking on extreme races in exotic locations all over the globe

Unreal experince the Safari Rally, delighted to get to the finish line!

Results : https://www.safarirally.co.ke/2018/03/20/final-wrap-up-tundo-wins-2018-safari-in-the-final-day-of-drama/

On recce we came across a lot of different wild life on the stages, camels, zebra, monkeys, impala, Buffalo, jackal, cattle etc

We were told by the organizers not to stray too far from the car as there were Lions in the park also!

We did see lots of Zebra on the event and they are known cross the stage, I kept an eye on them as we passed them.

We had a challenging event, but I guess that part of the adventure, as they say if it easy everybody would be at it!

The weather was hot and 30 degC + and was challenging for us Irish in 3 layer suits!

There was some relief when the rain came it got cooler, but there were floods on the road knee high, a number of people were killed in the floods around Nairobi.

The rain had its own challenges with the mud pools, you need to trying and keep the car going and avoid breaking car parts due to water pressure, if you go to fast through the water/mud.

The “mud pools” we a...

Got to make my tracking racing debut at the weekend during an endurance race at the famous Laguna Seca Raceway in California.

I raced in the "Triple Apex Racing" Yaris in the lucky dog race event, not the most powerful car on track but was definitely great fun.

The race ran 8 hours on Saturday and the same again Sunday.....lots and lots of laps of the track which include the famous Cork Screw.

Thanks Ian Korf for welcoming me into your team.

Pacenotes rally magazine October 2016 reporting on our adventure in Cali

Catherine and myself competed at the Gorman Ridge Rally (20th of August) which was a round of the California Rally Championship. As the oldest consecutively running rally in California, the Gorman Ridge Rally is also the toughest rally in the United States. We drove a Toyota Corolla in the same team as former Irish Tarmac champion John Coyne.

 The event took place in Hungry Valley State Park which was 65 miles north of Los Angeles. Hungry Valley was the location of the rally section of the X Games back in 2006 where Colin McRae famously rolled just before the finish line.

 The rally consisted of 16 demanding stages run over the sandy and desert park with the last 5 stages at night. The stages had a mix of everything from narrow, twisty, to fast flowing to jumpy sections and some scary cliffs edges.

 The outside temperature was over 35 deg C which made it hot inside the rallycars, the majority of local competitors had the T-Shirts which were cooled with ice water flowing through them.

 There were some interesting vehicles competing the rally.

Ryan Millen was driving a Toyota backed RAV4. There was also a Yamaha 4x4 1000cc ATV and a...

A report from Pacenotes Magazine on our magical trip to Rovaniemi, Finland.

An Arcticle from Brian Patterson's Irish notes describing our Arctic Rally Adventure...

Great run at opening round of the 2015 National Autox championship in Ballycumber Co.Offfaly.

First run I had turbo boost issues, resolved for second I was fast enough to win fastest rallycar of the day. Great track, great event.

10 years ago this year, some footage from the Junior Rally for the Lakes in 2005.

We are 3rd car through the gap in this footage driving a red Ford Escort mk2.

Awards for the 2014 Autox Championships

Matt : 1st in Class National Autox Championship

Austin : 1st in Class Munster Autox Championship

Family day out, We were bored over Christmas so we decide to race each other!

3 Drive shafts, 2 sets of plugs and one oil cooler was all that was damaged.

We had a 1, 2, 3, Alan Won class 3, Matt was 2nd in class 4 and Geoge was 3 in class 2.