I can still remember it, with the clarity of yesterday even though 22 years have passed since then. It was the baking hot spring of 1994 and, when I should have been busy studying for my Leaving Cert, I was instead perched in a hedgerow somewhere near Killarney. In front of me was a painted white line across the road and in my hands was a timing box - an electronic stopwatch to be triggered as the cars competing in the Rally of the Lakes passed in front of me.
From out of the heat shimmer somewhere off to my left came a familiar noise. It was the guttural stutter of a Subaru flat-four turbo engine having its neck wrung with exquisite care and cruelty. I tensed, thumb on the button and pressed it just as the leading car flashed past me. Except I never actually saw it - all I saw was a blur of silver and the fleeting impression of the word 'Toughmac' as they passed in front of me at some colossal speed. Bertie Fisher was well and truly on it that day, on that stage, and there were few, if any, that could claim to be faster.
It was a golden age of Irish rallying back then. The famed Circuit of Ireland may not have actually been a proper circuit any more but there were plenty of great events up and down the island, and the cars of choice were simply spectacular. While they were never cheap, Irish competitors with a decent budget could still get their hands on what were essentially front-line World Rally Championship cars and so performance levels had never been higher. The likes of Austin McHale, Frank Meagher and Kenny McKinstry. Fisher stood head and shoulders above them all - quiet, almost taciturn, but always with a faint smile playing over those lips. And he was fast. Monster fast, probably the equal of any driver who rallied on the world stage in sheer speed.
And just a few short years later he was gone, killed in a helicopter accident returning from a family party, his young son Mark (by then an up and coming driver himself) and his daughter Emma alongside him. It was a terrible tragedy in any respect, but one especially felt by Ireland's close-knit rallying community and one that would go on to have consequences far greater than initially thought.
15 years on from the accident, Bertie is getting the tribute he's long deserved as one of the greatest sportsmen this island has produced. King Fisher will be released next March, and will be full of photos, stories, results and reminiscing of the great man's life.
The book has been researched and compiled by Kieran and Fergus McAnallen. Kieran, the senior, was the founder of Toughmac safety glass, sponsor of Bertie's rallying and friend of the man and his family for forty years. "In my book Bertie Fisher was Bertie fisher no matter how or when you met him. He had the same charisma all the time. He had the gift driving. He was always very fast. He's been called the legend of rallying in Ireland. It was discussed over the years, a number of times, but it was basically down to business commitments. He was a business man first, and a rallying man second, even though it was his great love.
"It always was the feeling that, ever since Bertie's accident, that we should do something in the form of a book and it's just finally come together in the past couple of years. It's a history of Bertie's rallying from the late sixties all the way through to 2000. It starts in Minis, which were his first rally cars, through Escorts and Mantas and on up to the Imprezas."
Much of the research and writing for the book was carried out by Kieran's cousin, Fergus, himself the brother of late Tyrone GAA star Cormac. "I only ever met Bertie once or twice, and if I ever said five words to him I would have died of it because I was kind of a shy fan. The Ulster Rally used to pass practically by our back door which is how I would have got into the sport at first, and then the likes of RPM on the telly would just have grown that.
"So I started out a fan of Bertie's, and ended up something of a bit of a nerd when it comes to rallying. I always wanted to do something to remember Bertie, because he was such a hero."
The proceeds from the book, made with the help of the Armagh Tigers society, will be donated to the Fisher Foundation, which provides financial support to young people volunteering overseas and continually works to improve motorsport safety standards.
What would have become of Fisher had the tragedy not happened though? Rallying was about to take a downturn, globally and locally, at that time anyway so I asked the MacAnallens what Fisher might have been doing today. "It's hard to know" says Fergus. "I think he'd have been involved in some form or other, whether as a driver, or as an organiser, or in a safety capacity. He was heavily involved in the promotion of safety in motor sport, partially due to accidents that he'd seen in the eighties. So he may not have been involved in driving, but he'd have been involved in some way."
"Rallying today has become too high tech and too costly" says Kieran, "and that's what's its downfall. Bertie would still have been doing rallies today, but probably more like historic events and he would have been doing them for fun."
Fergus agrees with that. "Rallying is now a very different game to what it was back then. Bertie, I would say, grew up in an era where as a clubman, with the right equipment, you could have competed with the big boys. But the big boys now have cars which cost an awful lot more than what the average clubman can afford. When Bertie, for instance, did the 1978 Donegal Rally, Ari Vatanen came along and was entered in his 'Black Beauty' Escort, as it's known. The nearest challenger to him was Bertie, who then was only an up and coming driver, he would have won a few local events up to that point, but that would have been one of his first big chances to shine, and it showed that he could put it up against anyone really, on a level playing field. But today, rallying is a very different game."
When we lost Bertie in that terrible accident, we lost a great Irish sporting hero, and a truly brilliant driver. But it seems that the loss may have been even greater than that for the sport as a whole, as Fergus told us that "it's fair to say that there are other drivers, who've admitted to me in interviews, that because of what happened to Bertie, they lost their own spark, their own enthusiasm and they stopped rallying because of the tragedy. The far reaching things that have happened because of Bertie's tragedy, are not just limited to his own rallying and his own legacy."
That legacy is a powerful one though. According to Fergus, "there are a number of key words that pop up all through the research, and all through the interviews with the different people we've spoken to for this book. Integrity, honesty and professionalism are the ones that will form his lasting legacy. He was a very successful businessman, a very successful rally driver, hugely popular in the local community. He was an all round hero in every definition of the word."
King Fisher will be launched at a gala event in the Fisher Suite of the Armagh City Hotel on March 4th next. Motor clubs and rally enthusiasts can buy tickets for the book launch and night of celebration at www.bertiefisher.com where the book is also available for pre order, priced at £45.