Michael Conlon and Ciaran Mc Philips made good their trip to North Armagh on Saturday last with an excellent 6-second win on the Loughgall Festival of Motorsport Stages Rally. The duo were pushed all the way however with Damian Toner and Trevor Wilson, both in escorts, keeping the pressure on the Monaghan men with only 3 seconds separating all three crews with just two stages to go, but Michael and Ciaran pulled out all the stops to double their advantage over the final two tests and took a deserved outright win, putting their names on the trophy alongside the likes of Wesley Patterson who had dominated this event in recent years. Michael and Ciaran’s early competition came in the form of Cootehill’s Mervin Wedlock and Damian Mc Cabe who had led the event after the first two stages but their event came to a sudden end on ss3. Mervin did spend the night in hospital as a precaution and thankfully is on the mend, Monaghan Motor Club wish him well on his recovery. Michael and Ciaran would like to take the opportunity to thank their sponsors MC Blinds and monaghanlife.ie monaghan’s new on line newspaper. Kieran (Bilko) Mc Carra and Mark Hamill also made the trip north and didn’t disappoint as they slid their pristine Honda civic to 6th overall and 1st in class, Bilko certainly getting to grips with his new car following a good result on the circuit of Ireland. Carrickmacross’ Gerry and Gavin McGivney brought their escort home to a fine 18th overall and surely entertained the crowds in the process with their sideways style driving. In the historic category of the event Balinode’s Brendan Mc Aree and Jonathan McGovern took their immaculate Porsche Carrera RS to a fine 2nd in class, this Brendan’s first stages event in his new historic spec car.
Kierans & McAdoo Crowned National Champions
Aghabog’s Arthur Kierans & Ashley McAdoo collected the National Navigation Championship trophy at the championship prize giving held in Portlaoise last Saturday last 21st May. Following another strong performance over the season, four victories in the eight events was enough to claim the championship for a fourth season in succession. Once again Monaghan had a strong presence in the championship with no fewer than twenty club members amongst the prizewinners. The prize giving was preceded by the annual Open Forum chaired by Paul Hughes. There was lively discussion and debate on how the sport could be improved for the future. The attendance was widespread and included representatives from the various motor clubs involved in the running of Navigation Trials as well as competitors. The list of prizewinners is as follows: Motorsport Ireland National Navigation Trial Championship 2010-2011 Overall: 1st Arthur Kierans/Ashley McAdoo 2nd Michael Carbin/Evin Hughes 3rd Chris Kelly/Sam Johnston Expert: 1st Michael Tynan/Ciaran Tynan 2nd Andrew Mackarel/Liam Higgins 3rd Richard Cassidy/Noel Hall S/Expert: 1st Darren Babington/Francis Keenan 2nd Johnny Kenneally/Ken Carmody 3rd Declan Tynan/Jonathan McGovern Novice: 1st Pakie Duffy/Colin Duffy 2nd Kevin Keenan/Barry Garvey 3rd Donal McArdle/Olivia McCarthy Beginner: 1st Darren Quinn/Nigel McCloughry 2nd Damien Hagan/Macartan Kierans 3rd Micheal McCluskey/Catriona McCluskey.
Fire Marshal Training
Motorsport Ireland provided a weekend of fire marshal training for local motor clubs last weekend, which proved to be a huge success. This course took about 2 hours and had well over 60 people in attendance over the two days, almost 40 of these from the Monaghan Motor club. This was a worthwhile course as potential marshals and competitors got first hand experience of how to deal with various types of fire situations, which they may be faced with on motor sport events such as running fuel fires, engine fires and fuel tank/in-car fires. Indeed these situations could also arise in everyday life and general feedback from this course was that everyone associated with motorsport should take the opportunity to attend this course. Motorsport Ireland would like to extend there thanks to Rally School Ireland, Scotstown for the use of their excellent facilities over the duration of the weekend.
Cavan Stages Rally Preview
All roads lead to our neighbouring Cavan Motor Club this weekend for their annual Kilmore Hotel Cavan Stages Rally. This event is Round 4 of the Dunlop National Rally Championship and round 3 of the Sligo Pallets Border Rally championship and is sure to see many class battles as well as strong competition among the front runners with five WRC spec cars amongst the top ten entry. Championship leader Tim McNulty will lead the way at no. 1 followed by Balinode’s Niall Maguire and Enda Sherry at 2 and Kevin Barrett at 3, both in triton showers backed Impreza’s. Monaghan’s Sam Moffet and James O’Reilly are at 6 in their group N Evo 9 and are hopeful of a good point’s haul as class leader Robert Barrable isn’t on the entry list at present. A duo of Donegal escorts lead off the two wheel drive brigade with last years border championship winner Declan Boyle at 8 and Manus Kelly at 9, both in class 14 escorts. Shane Maguire and Charlie McEnery make a return to the series at 11 in their group N subaru, Shane opting to sit out the last event in Carlow due to college exams. Fresh from his win in Loughgall, Michael Conlon and Aidan Boyle are at 14 and are sure to have a battle royal with the likes of Russell Woods and Carlow’s Sam Smyth whom they had a good battle with on Sam’s local Carlow Rally a few weeks ago, Michael looking forward to the challenge on neutral stages! Richard Moffett and Martin Connolly are also likely to feature in class 13, starting at 26. Vincent and JP McAree return to the tarmac on Sunday at 33, a change from the gravel where they currently are joint leaders of the forestry championship. Aghabog’s Arthur and Mac Kierans head the class 12 field at 36 and are sure to have a great battle with the likes of James Cassidy in an escort and Noel O’Donnell in a 205. Josh Moffett hopes to debut his new EVO at 42 while Bilko and Colm Murphy are at 44 and hopeful of another good run. Other Monaghan men to make the short trip include John McQuaid 45, David Moffett 47, Martin McPhilips/Nicola McKenna 48 while Aaron McQuaid and Aidan Coyle will hope to follow on from their class 10 win in Monaghan, seeded at 58. Justin Smyth and Gregory Mc Quillan take to the stages proper at 66 following their good but troubled run in the junior category in Monaghan. Gerard McQuiad is at 69 with threemilehouse man Damian Sherry at 77, Michael Carbin and Evin Hughes have gotten their engine back together and start at 78 with Conor Foley at 87. Sean and Fintan Sherry are at 90 closely followed by the class 10 peugeot of Barry Treanor and Colm Conolly at 91. Monaghan CoC Conor Maguire takes his immaculate Mark I escort to the stages once again at 102. Entries are still available for this popular event. As always these events don’t run on there own and marshals are required in great numbers. Monaghan Motor club are required to marshal a full stage and anyone offering to help are asked to make contact with a committee member before Friday evening. Meeting point for Monaghan Marshal’s is the Shantully Inn, Crossdoney at 8.30am sharp on Sunday morning.
County Monaghan Motor Club 