Reigning Dunlop National champions Declan and Brian Boyle picked up where they left off last season with an overall win on the 2014 Hotel Ballina-Kennedy Motors Mayo Stages Rally on Sunday last. This event was the opening round of both the Dunlop National Championship and Sligo Pallets Border Championship and had a bumper entry of 7 WRC’s heading off a field of 148 starters. The Donegal cousins had a comfortable win with a 2 minute 21second advantage over their nearest rivals Roy White and James O’Brien in 2nd in the MG ZR S2400 rover. Paddy McVeigh and Gary Mc Elhinney were 3rd overall in a WRC Subaru.
On an extremely slippery opening stage near Bunnyconnellan, Boyle was 4.9 seconds ahead of Hugh Hunter also in a Subaru, who endured a half spin. Roy White was third fastest, 10.9 seconds further adrift. Former triple Dunlop champion, Niall Maguire and Conor Foley languished down in fourteenth place almost 40 seconds off the lead due to intercom problems, this the first of many gremlins for the Ballinode pairing who eventually were forced into retirement with engine concerns. By first service Sam Moffett and James O’Reilly led the Group N category and seventh overall in a top ten completed by Paddy McVeigh, Josh Moffett, who spun his Mitsubishi on the opening stage and Aaron MacHale. With all the drivers remarking on the slippery conditions throughout the day it was the Boyles who faired best on the second loop of stages, their only indiscretion was on S.S. 5 when he stalled his Subaru at a junction. Hunter had a good stage time on S.S. 4 but his rally ended on the next stage when he retired with a sensor issue. Josh Moffett moved into the lead of Group N when his brother Sam retired with engine troubles on S.S. 5. By second service Tommy Doyle had moved into the lead of the two wheel drive category in a Clio R3 and was involved in a frantic battle with Clones man Raymond Conlon and Darren McCague, exchanging stage times and both were inside the top 10.
Aaron MacHale retired his Mitsubishi with fuel pump troubles. Kevin Barrett withdrew his Subaru at the final service halt due to problems with sixth gear. On the final loop of three stages, Boyle survived a heart stopping moment on the penultimate stage and went on to take victory and maximum Dunlop points. White and McVeigh completed the top three. Wood’s in the ex-Darren Gass Subaru WRC was fourth from Daniel Barry, who won the R4 category and Group N winner was Josh Moffett, who finished sixth overall. Shane Maguire retired the ex-Stephen Wright EVO 9 on the penultimate stage. The battle for two wheel drive honours went down to the wire with Tommy Doyle eventually edging out the Clones Shavings, Gibbon Plumbing and Scanbitz backed twin cam of Conlon/McCague who finished an excellent 9th overall and a class win to kick start their border campaign.
Elsewhere there was plenty of local interest on the slippery Mayo stages as Paul Sheridan navigated Vivian Hamill to 12th overall and 2nd in class 14. Justin Smyth had Sharon Clarke on the notes for the first time and they had a tremendous run to take 1st in class 12 and 15th overall, seven seconds ahead of Martin Toner in 2nd. Gary Kiernan and Niall Tierney sported the red class 13 escort of his late brother Paddy and had a great run to 17th o/a and 3rd in class. Carrickroe brothers John and Niall Kelly had a good class 10 win in the twin cam as they launch another attack on the border championship having come close last year. Cootehill man Gene McDonald had his new class 9 escort on the Mayo stages and finished just 10 seconds off 3rd in class. Emmett Sherry was navigating for Richard Tannahill in a super looking 208 and finished 17seconds adrift of Eddie Peterson and Sam Johnston for the class 6 honours. Michael Carbin and Emmet Mc Cooey had a difficult day as results sheets show a bad stage time for SS5 which dropped them well down the leader board after some great results of late. Damian O’Reilly and Damien McCabe had been inside the top 3 in the junior category but disappeared from results sheets after stage 5.
So that’s its from Mayo, the opening round of the Dunlop National and Sligo Pallets border Rally championship’s. All roads lead to Monaghan on 27th April for the 2nd round of the border campaign so keep the date free if your available to help!
Mayo & District MC 2014 Stages Rally Top 10
1/ Declan Boyle/Brian Boyle (Impreza WRC) 60m 24s
2/ Roy White/James O’Brien (MG ZR S2400) 62m 45s
3/ Paddy McVeigh/Gary McElhinney (Impreza WRC) 63m 46s
4/ Steve Wood/Keith Moriarty (Impreza WRC) 64m 02s
5/ Daniel Barry/Gordon Noble (Lancer Evo 10) 64m 37s
6/ Josh Moffett/John Rowan (Lancer Evo 9) 65m 27s
7/ Tommy Doyle/Liam Moynihan (Clio R3) 66m 07s
8/ Trevor Bustard/John McCafferty (Lancer Evo 9) 66m 14s
9/ Raymond Conlon/Darren McCague (Corolla) 66m 22s
10/ David Leonard/Darragh Mullen (Lancer) 66m 55s
Group N Production class: Josh Moffett/John Rowan
Rally.ie two wheel drive award: Tommy Doyle/Liam Moynihan
Monaghan Motor Club Navigation Trial
Monaghan Motor Club will host the final round of the National and Squealing Pig Border Navigation championship’s on Saturday night, 22nd March. CoC, Damien Connolly and his team are hard at work with their final preparations for the event which will be based in Sean McDermotts GAA centre, Threemilehouse. Please keep this date free if your available to marshal or help out in any way.
Club Notes/PRO Details
Monaghan Motor Club have set up a new e-mail account solely for the purpose of receiving information from competitors and club members on their exploits throughout the year in all forms of motorsport competition. All competitors are urged to e-mail action photos (no watermarks) and a short note on how they got on in any event throughout the year. We need these details for weekly reports and Facebook news. The e-mail address is rallynews1@gmail.com Obviously we cannot guarantee everything will be published but your input would be greatly appreciated to try and cover all members and their endeavours.
County Monaghan Motor Club 