County Monaghan Motor Club

 Cavan Motor Club kicked off the 2011/12 Squealing Pig Border Navigation campaign in earnest on Saturday night last.  Cootehill man Mervin Wedlock once again took on the role of CoC, ably assisted by Dominic “Bart” McArdle. Tullyvin Community Centre was the ideal venue for the event as 47 starters prepared for a tricky trial through the windmill strewn mountain lodge countryside. Andy Mackarel and Liam Higgins came out on top of a very close battle as 4 penalties separated the top 9 crews. Arthur Kierans was re-acquainted with regular navigator Ashley McAdoo and finished 2^nd over-all. Garreth Beagan and Stephen Thornton proved their win last time out was not a fluke as they took 3^rd over-all ahead of the upcoming drumlin navigation trial which sees them take on the role of CoC’s. 

            Lanes came thick and fast from the off and as early as time point 2 only eight crews were on clean sheets. The now infamous Kinkades lane accounted for the majority of this time loss. The event then moved South towards the mountain lodge area over the famous “nobbys jumps”. The fast flowing gravel lane out to tp5 past under 3 windmills, an amazing sight as spot lights lit up these massive structures for split seconds at a time. Tp 6 was a slot left around a farm, which saw only six crews manage to make the time point in the allotted time. Results sheets suggest time points 9 and 10 also saw many top crews drop precious minutes. A slot left off the lane to tp10 was hard to find and the majority of crews slipped past this resulting in massive time loss. Only 6 crews managed to visit these two time points without incurring penalties. By time point 11 event winners Andy Mackarel and Liam Higgins were in the lead but only on furthest cleanest from Garreth Beagan and Stephen Thornton with Arthur and Ashley in 3^rd. Packie and Colin Duffy were leading the semi-experts ahead of another midlands crew Chris Kelly and Sam Johnston. Novice pairing of Donal McArdle and local lad Thomas Wedlock were in top form and would have been leading the event by mid-point but picked up stop sign penalties to drop them out of contention. James McCarville and Fintan Clerkin were flying in the novice class and only down 2 penalties by mid point with Sean McKenna and Gary Farrelly a point behind. Cootehill father and son team of Gerry and Aaron McIntyre were having a great run in the beginner’s class with a commanding lead on only their second event by mid point.

            The second half of the trial moved northeast again towards the Drung and Lisnageer areas before a final run over “nobbys jumps” and back to Tullyvin.  Most expert crews managed to complete the second half on clean sheets although Garreth Beagan and Stephen Thornton dropped a minute at the last time point to drop them from 2^nd to 3^rd. This promoted Arthur and Ashley to 2^nd with Mackarel/Higgins cleaning the second half also to take the clear win by 1 penalty. Trevor Farrell and Noel Hall had a consistent run through the Cavan lanes to finish on 2 penalties and 3^rd in expert class. Once results sheets went up it became apparent that a number of crews had passed by “No” board, which merits an automatic 100 penalties, which re-shuffled the leader board a little. Midlands men Chris Kelly and Sam Johnston came out on top in the semi-expert class. James Logue and Hugh Kelly had a great run to 2^nd in semi ahead of Packie and Colin Duffy. The latter’s night could have been much better as they finished with 4 time penalties but were awarded the dreaded 100 as they were adjudged to pass a “No” board.

            In the novice class Sean McKenna and Gary Farrelly had a tremendous run to finish on 3 penalties, another crew to clean the second half. Darren Quinn and Nigel Cloughery finished the event on a respectable 7 penalties, 5 of these at tp10 alone to take 2^nd in novice ahead of Ciaran McElroy and Damian “junior” McCabe on 11pens.

The beginners class had a bit of a re-shuffle through the second half as the McIntyre Subaru missed 4 time points to drop them out of the top three. Connor Meehan and Brendan Keenan took the class win, a wrong approach at tp2 accounting for 15 of their 27penalty total. Fintan Sherry and Darragh Kelly made a big mends for their wrong approach and missed time point as they only dropped 4 minutes through the second half to take 2^nd in beginners class. Declan Tynan decided to try out the passenger seat for this event with cousin Martin driving and managed to take 3^rd beginners.

So that’s it from Cavan for the time being, well done to Mervin and Bart on an enjoyable event. Next up in the Squealing Pig border championship is the Monaghan Drumlin on 12^th November while Cork MC host the next round of the National championship on 5^th November.

 Cavan MC Navigation Trial Top 12

1/ Andy Mackarel/Liam Higgins (Subaru Impreza) 1 mark

2/ Arthur Kierans/Ashley McAdoo (Subaru Impreza) 2m

3/ Garreth Beagan/Stephen Thornton (Subaru Impreza) 2m

4/ Trevor Farrell/Noel Hall (Subaru Impreza) 2m

5/ Sean McKenna/Garry Farrelly (Subaru Impreza) 3m

6/ Michael Tynan/Ciaran Tynan (Subaru Impreza) 3m

7/ Richard Cassidy/Paul Phelan (Vauxhall Vectra) 4m

8/ Kevin Keenan/Daire Hayes (Subaru Impreza) 4m

9/ Michael Carbin/Evin Hughes (Subaru Impreza) 4m

10/ Darren Quinn/Nigel McCloughry (Subaru Legacy) 7m

11/ Ciaran McElroy/Damien McCabe (Subaru Impreza) 11m

12/ Chris Kelly/Sam Johnston (Subaru Impreza) 11m

 GSMC Mini Stages RallyWell done to JP McAree who was navigating for Jack Newman on last weekends Garda Siochana Mini Stages Rally. They finished 12^th over-all and 3^rd in the competitive class 11 in their Honda civic. Barry McKenna and Seamus Connolly also made the trip South to Baltinglass, Co Wicklow and had a great run to 17^th over-all in their blue class 13 escort.