Monaghan duo Gary McPhillips and Mark Tierney took an impressive overall win on the Galway Summer Rally last weekend. Gary & Mark have scored multiple successes in class 14 over the last few years but on this occasion they stepped up to challenge for overall honours. At the end of the nine stages, the Monaghan crew finished some 16 seconds clear of the WRC Focus of Dubliner Robert Barrable and Monaghan’s Damien Connolly. This was the Monaghan crew’s first ever overall win on a Multi-Stages Rally.
An added incentive in this year’s rally was the “King of the Mk2” challenge which gave prizes to the top finishing crews in Mk2 Escorts. This led to a strong field of Escorts with the likes of Manus Kelly, Camillus Bradley, Trevor Mulligan and Russell Woods also bidding for honours. After the opening stage, the WRC Impreza of PJ McDermott was leading the rally from Robert Barrable and Gary McPhillips.
3rd placed McPhillips had a good second stage which moved him into the lead of the rally. After stage 3, McPhillips led from Barrable with McDermott having dropped to 3rd. Gary & Mark had also pulled 30 seconds clear of their nearest rival in the ‘King of the MK2’ challenge, Manus Kelly/Donal Barrett. Despite the disadvantage of 2wd, Gary & Mark comfortably held the overall lead until stage 6 when a cracked manifold slowed them. This would be fixed at the next service and the Monaghan duo could now go about rebuilding their lead over Robert Barrable and his Monaghan navigator Damien Connolly.
PJ McDermott’s retirement promoted Manus Kelly into 3rd place. Out front, Gary & Mark extended their lead to 20 seconds with two stages to go. By the finish their advantage had been trimmed to 16 seconds but it was more than enough to claim a superb victory. Adding to their delight, their performance also saw them win ‘The King of the MK 2’ challenge by 1 min 30secs. Gary would like to thank his service crew Francis, Paul, Emmett, John, Cathal and Jason.
Damien Connolly guided young Robert Barrable to 2nd place on Robert’s first stages event behind the wheel of the WRC Focus. Manus Kelly/Donal Barrrett took 3rd overall. Shane Maguire/Enda Sherry put in a storming drive to win Group N and finish a fine 5th overall. Martin McPhillips/Nicola McKenna took their Toyota Corolla to 29th overall and 5th in class 11.
Open Meeting, Friday 3rd September
An Open Meeting for all Monaghan Motor Club members will be held at 8.30pm this Friday, 3rd September in the Hillgrove Hotel, Monaghan. The main item on the agenda will be The Way Forward proposal from Motorsport Ireland. This document can be accessed from the club website: www.monaghanmotorclub.net.
County Monaghan Motor Club 