County Monaghan Motor Club

Cavan Motor Club under the guidance of CoC Ashley McAdoo and Francis Keenan held their second navigation trial of the year on Saturday night last from Gallonreagh House in Maudabawn. With over-all and class honours still very much up for grabs in this years National and Squealing Pig Border Championships confidence was high amongst the expert and semi-expert competitors of an outright win. However the local novice crews had other ideas and it was Ciaran McElroy and Damian McCabe who led the field home albeit on the same penalties as local rivals Darren O’Brien and Thomas Wedlock. Both crews dropped their first penalties at time point 7 but the event winners Mc Elroy/Mc Cabe just edged in front on the furthest cleanest ruling as O’Brien/Wedlock dropped a further penalty at the next time point. Some may think that this result would be considered an upset but both these navigators are on serious form of late and are never far outside the top 5 on recent events. Veterans Richard Cassidy and Paul Phelan brought the trusty vectra home to a 3^rd over-all finish to silence some of their critics in the more powerful four wheel drive impreza’s.

Ashley and Francis were sure to use every trick in the book to catch out unsuspecting navigators and indeed they were at it as early as time point 1! Any navigator who plotted the shortest route to the first time point instead of using the tulip diagram provided would find himself or herself passing through time point 2, which was a plot and bash therefore picking up double visit penalties. This trick has never been used in recent times and Michael/Ciaran Tynan were first to fall foul of it along with seven other crews, the start of a bad night for this supposedly expert navigator! Time points 8 and 9 were also plot and bash with a lot of time loss for all crews. A well thought out route to be traversed saw the seconds tick by in an effort to reach tp7 without going into tp8 & 9 along the way, classic Ashley McAdoo tricks. Once again it was the expert crew of Michael Carbin and Evin Hughes who were setting the benchmark and held a commanding lead right up until tp23. Number 1 seeds Gareth Beagan and Stephen Thornton were also on a bad run missing tp 9 and taking an early clock in at tp16 whilst Andy Mackeral and Liam Higgins found themselves on a wrong approach to tp20. Event leaders Carbin/Hughes dropped back through time points 24 and the ITC section. Trevor Farrell and Noel Halls over joy at seeing Mackeral/Higgins take a wrong approach at 20 seems to have cost them the event win also as they never went to tp 21 at all! All in all none of the regular experts were having a good night.

The midlands crews could also fall into this category as Chris Kelly and Sam Johnston took a wrong approach at tp20, as did Packie and Colin Duffy. This was a plot and bash section with the approach and departures turned around, which affected no fewer than 10 crews. Back down the field the local novices were quietly but quickly getting round all the time points and keeping their noses clean so to speak. Ciaran McElroy and Damian McCabe ended the night as worthy winners with Darren O’Brien and Thomas Wedlock also using their local knowledge to good effect but still had to work out the entire plot and bash sections with minimal time loss.

Cassidy and Phelans 3^rd over-all merited them expert class winners ahead of Michael Carbin/Evin Hughes with Andy Mackarel and Liam Higgins one penalty adrift in third. Monaghan’s Damien Treanor and Johnathan McGovern had a great result with a semi-expert class win but this could possibly have been the drive of the night had it not been for a wrong approach at tp20 also costing them the over-all win. Kelly/Johnston headed back to the midlands with 2^nd semi-expert with upcoming CoC’s Kevin Keenan and Barry Garvey 3^rd semi. With McElroy/McCabe taking the over-all win O’Brien/Wedlock had to settle for the novice class award with Donegal’s Karl Reid and Kieran Geaney taking 2^nd novice, also victims of a wrong approach at tp20. Dermot McGroary and Eamonn Doherty rounded off the top 3 in novice with a good run to 11^th over-all. The beginner’s class was a close affair with Aaron Duffy and Michael McCluskey coming out on top ahead of the midlands team of Shane Dalton and Micheal Reilly. 3^rd beginners went to Trevor McConnell and Ruaidri Nash.

Once again another great event run by Cavan MC and well done to Ashley and Francis and their many helpers in the Maudabawn area. All roads lead to Monaghan for the final round of this years National and Squealing Pig border navigation championships. Almost all of the over-all and class awards are still up for grabs so there is a lot to play for on Friday 16^th March in Ballinode, Co. Monaghan with first car away at the later time of 11pm.

 

Cavan MC Night Navigation Top 12

1/ Ciaran McElroy/Damien McCabe (Subaru Impreza) 13marks

2/ Daren O’Brien/Thomas Wedlock (Subaru Impreza) 13m

3/ Richard Cassidy/Paul Phelan (Vauxhall Vectra) 14m

4/ Michael Carbin/Evin Hughes (Subaru Impreza) 23m

5/ Andy Mackarel/Liam Higgins (Subaru Impreza) 24m

6/ Alan Shinnors/George Shinnors (Subaru Impreza) 25m

7/ Damien Treanor/Jonathan McGovern (Subaru Impreza) 26m

8/ Karl Reid/Ciaran Geaney (Subaru Impreza) 29m

9/ Chris Kelly/Sam Johnston (Subaru Impreza) 30m

10/ Trevor Farrell/Noel Hall (Subaru Impreza) 32m

11/ Dermot McGroary/Eamonn Doherty (Subaru Impreza) 46m

12/ Kevin Keenan/Barry Garvey (Subaru Impreza) 48m

 

Breen back with a bang

Craig Breen and Gareth Roberts made a winning return to the Irish Rally scene on Saturday last with a dominant 3minute 21second win on the Carrick-on-Suir Willie Loughman Memorial Forestry Stages Rally. Craig in his S2000 fiesta was fastest on all 6 stages of the event, with the final three stages run under the shadow of darkness and a 9pm finish. Gary Jennings’ recent good form continued with 2^nd over-all and taking maximum points on this, the second round of the Valvoline Irish forestry championship following his win in the Donegal Forests.

There were three Monaghan crews in contention and they all finished inside the top seven finishers. Vincent and JP McAree finally got the finish they deserved after some disappointing results on recent events. 3^rd over-all on this occasion sees the McAree EVO 9 back in contention for the forestry championship after finishing 2^nd over-all last year. A great drive by Vincent and hopefully a sign of things to come for the McAree’s this year. Arthur Kierans was once again in the hot seat for Colin Britton also in an EVO 9 and they managed to come in 4^th over-all. Unfortunately for this crew a top three finish eluded them as they picked up a 2-minute penalty for late departure out of service. Nevertheless a good result and points haul towards their forestry campaign. Brother and sister pairing of Stephen and Suzanne Wright were back at it again in their older spec EVO 6 having opted out of the local fivemiletown forestry event the weekend before to finish 7^th over-all on his occasion. Unfortunately for the Swanns Cross pairing they could have finished much higher up the leader board but a small off on the first stage accounted for over 3 minutes time loss which would have easily seen them finish inside the top 5. Following a 2^nd over-all finish in the Donegal forests Stephen is obviously a little disappointed but is still very much in contention in this year’s championship.