County Monaghan Motor Club

 All roads lead to Carlow this weekend for the annual Carlow Stages Rally based in Tullow which is a counting round of the National Rally Championship but also features the ever popular Mark II challenge. Fresh from his win in Monaghan Tim Mc Nulty and Paul Kiely will lead off a field of 135 in his S12B Subaru with Monaghan’s Niall Maguire and Enda Sherry at 2 in their slightly older spec Subaru and Kevin Barrett and Sean Mullally round off the top 3 seeds in an S11 WRC Subaru. Robert Barrable and Damian Connolly will be hoping their recent good results continue as they start at 6 in their Skoda Fabia. Sam Moffett nd James O’Reilly are 2nd on the road in the group N category at 8 in their EVO 9 and probably hoping to improve on their 8th o/a in the circuit after some minor mechanical gremlins. Shane Maguire and Charlie McEnery are at 10 in their group N Subaru and are gradually finding the pace of the top group N men so will be hoping for a trouble free run. England’s Simon Maugher leads off a plethora of high powered escorts at no. 11, followed by Monaghan’s Gary Mc Phillips who will be hoping for better luck after his engine cried enough in Monaghan while setting some top 3 stage times. Danial McKenna and Andrew Grennan are next up at 14 in the Scanbitz escort and sure to thrill the crowds with they’re pace also. Rodney Wilton, Trevor Mulligan and Adrian Hetherington, John Waring and David Condell all follow suit in class 14 escorts and will be hoping for podium places on the Mark II challenge which should see the crowds descend on Carlow in their droves to watch these escorts do battle. Michael Conlon and Martin Byrne are seeded at 27, Michael showing great pace in recent events and surely won’t be far away come results time. Damian and Stephen Hagan team up in their class 13 escort at no. 33 with John McQuaid and Seamus O’Connor at 36 in another escort. Corcaghan’s Martin Mc Phillips completes the list of travelling Monaghan men in his class 11 twin cam and will also feature highly in the class results should he get a run of luck. So if you find yourself at a loose end and the weather is favourable, Carlow will be the place to be this Sunday for some guaranteed fast paced sideways action. Fire Marshal Training A Motorsport Ireland Fire Marshal’s Training course will take place in Rally School Ireland over the weekend of 21st/22nd May. This is a 2-hour course dealing with all aspects of fire prevention and fire fighting scenarios which marshal’s may face while on events. This is an interesting and worthwhile course. Booking forms are available on the Monaghan Motor Club web site with 4 different time slots to choose from, Saturday morning/afternoon or Sunday morning/afternoon. All marshals who work on MI events are urged to avail of this worthwhile course