Five Monaghan Motor Club crews made the journey south to Cork for the 1000 Shakes navigation trial on Saturday night last 22nd January. Arthur Kierans and Ashley McAdoo were bidding to extend their lead in the National Championship, with close rivals Michael Carbin and Evin Hughes hoping to bridge the gap somewhat. Richard Cassidy headed south to drive for Dubliner and veteran navigator Paul Phelan in his trusty Vectra while Darren Babbington and Francis Keenan felt the journey was necessary in their bid for semi-expert class honours. Macartan Kierans is showing great promise as a beginner navigator this season and called on the services of local Cork driver Jimmy Deane to pilot him through the twisty West Cork countryside. Indeed it was Arthur and Ashley who led from start to finish to maintain their lead in the National Navigation championship. They finished ahead of a duo of Cork crews with brothers Joe and Greg Shinnors pipping rivals Alan and George Shinnors for 2nd overall. The first half of the event was all pre-plotted with a mixture of gravel lanes, farm lanes and grassy tracks combined with the infamous twisty narrow roads of the West Cork countryside. Time point 10 was the first to feature time penalties as a litany of grassy lanes eventually forced most expert crews to incur at least 1 penalty. Tp11 would prove fatal for Michael and Evin’s hopes as an uncustomary timing error resulted in a massive 50 pens and ultimately cost them the event win. Tp15 was next to cause trouble where a mile long grassy lane combined with a marshal’s time clock being almost 2 minutes off caused most expert crews to accrue a further penalty. The bulk of the penalties were accrued at the first SRS section. This was timed at 32kph but the organisers seemed to have applied penalties based on 30mph. However, the same applied for everyone with Arthur and Ashley getting 20pens through this section as they headed for the petrol halt, down a total of 22pens. The second half started off with four plot and bash sections, which weren’t cleaned by anyone. The event leaders dropped 1 pen at tp104 and another at tp107, this was to be their last penalties of the night. They did have a scare however as they, along with over 10 other crews were adjudged to have failed to stop at a yield sign at TP116. However these and all other stop sign penalties were later scrapped on a technicality. Richard Cassidy and Paul Phelan had a consistent run to finish a creditable 5th o/a and 3rd expert, a missed time point their biggest slip-up of the night. Darren Babbington and Francis Keenan made their trip worthwhile as they finished 7th o/a and 2nd in the semi-expert class behind local Cork men Johnny Kenneally and Ken Carmody. Wrong approaches accounted for the majority of their 62 pens. Michael and Evin eventually finished 10th o/a on 71pens but this could have been a whole different story had they not got the 50 at tp11. Derek Butler and Olivia McCarthy won the novice class while travelling midlands men Packie and Colin Duffy took the beginner class honours and in doing so maintained there lead in the National series. Macartan Kierans plugged away all night to finish 4th in class and gained valuable experience. Next up is the Midland Motor Club event on 12th/13th February based at Shannon Key West Hotel, Rooskey, Co. Roscommon. This is a reserve event for the National Championship and round 4 of the Squealing Pig Border Championship Donegal Motor Club follow this on 19th/20th February with their first event for some years in the Border Championship.
Cork 1000 Shakes Navigation Trial Results 1 Arthur Kierans/Ashley McAdoo (Subaru Impreza) 24 marks
2 Joseph Shinnors/Greg Shinnors (Subaru Impreza) 27m
3 Alan Shinnors/George Shinnors (Subaru Impreza) 36m
4 Johnny Kenneally/Ken Carmody (Vauxhall Vectra) 47m
5 Richard Cassidy/Paul Phelan (Vauxhall Vectra) 49m
6 Ray O’Neill/Stephen O’Neill (Ford Mondeo) 50m
7 Darren Babington/Francis Keenan (Subaru Impreza) 62m
8 Brian O’Mahony/Declan Swanton (Opel Corsa) 70m
9 Derek Butler/Olivia McCarthy (Nissan Sunny) 71m
10 Michael Carbin/Evin Hughes (Subaru Legacy) 71m
11 Ger O’Connell/Denis O’Donovan (Subaru Impreza) 74m
12 Chris Kelly/Sam Johnston (Subaru Impreza) 85m
Semi-experts: 1 Johnny Kenneally/Ken Carmody 2 Darren Babington/Francis Keenan
3 Brian O’Mahony/Declan Swanton.
Novices: 1 Derek Butler/Olivia McCarthy 2 Brian McCarthy/Stephen Quinn 86m 3 Alwyn White/Adrian Tobin 185m
Beginners: 1 Pakie Duffy/Colin Duffy (Subaru Impreza) 92m 2 David Beamish/Muireann Hayes 126m 3 Darren Quinn/Nigel McCloughry 191m
Upcoming Events Keep free Sunday 20th February for the annual Monaghan Motor Club Autotest, which will once again be based at Wright’s quarry, Swann’s Cross. As always there will be a club members category so now is the time to acquire a suitable car or pull last year’s one out for this entertaining form of motor sport. Fivemiletown Forest Rally runs on Saturday 26th February, which usually sees a few club members on the entry list for this compact and local event.
PRO Details Following the Annual General Meeting, Ciaran Tynan has been elected as club PRO for the forthcoming year. This is a position that requires a lot of feedback from competitors doing events in order for weekly reports to be compiled and competitors to get a mention in the papers etc. We ask that if you are competing somewhere, send a quick e-mail with results or any stories regarding club members on events throughout the year. These can then be added to weekly reports; otherwise you can’t be guaranteed a mention. Ciaran’s e-mail address is tynaneng@gmail.com
County Monaghan Motor Club 