Midlands duo of Colin Duffy and Sam Johnston led the field home once again last Saturday night in the final round of the National and Squealing Pig border night navigation championship to record a clean sweep of Munster, National and Border Navigation championships for this season. The Longford men proved a force to be reckoned with from the off as they won the Drumlin Navigation in November and never looked back with wins in Cork and Midlands setting them up for the unique treble ahead of last Saturday nights event where they finished on a clean sheet to add the Border crown to there well decorated trophy cabinet for 2013/14. Richard Cassidy and Paul Phelan finished the night in 2nd overall which confirmed their 2nd overall placing in the National Championship. These were another crew to travel the length and breath of the country for the National campaign and their consistency paid off with a well deserved podium. Sean McKenna and Gary Farrelly ended their navigation season on a high with 3rd overall on the night, a great end to a year which saw them run a mammoth Drumlin event back in November as CoC’s.
Cassidy and Phelan’s 2nd overall handed them the expert class win, ahead of a three-way tie for 2nd in class with Michael/Ciaran Tynan, Packie Duffy/Evin Hughes and Trevor Farrell/Noel Hall all finishing on 15 penalties with no tie break ruling able to separate them. These expert crews all picked up a wrong approach on a plot and bash section. 3rd expert on the night went to number 1 seeds Martin Tynan and Stephen Thornton.
With McKenna/Farrelly taking 3rd overall and top semi-expert crew it was Ashley McAdoo and Laurence Keenan who took 2nd in class. Indeed this crew were on a clean sheet and coasting to overall victory but a wrong approach at the final control knocked them back to 4th overall. Wayne Feely had Damian Hagan on the maps and they had a great run on home soil to take 3rd in the semi-expert class. Donal McArdle had Cavan CoC Ruaidhri Nash in the hot seat and they too rounded off their season in style to take the novice class win ahead of Trevor McConnell and Eoghan McCarthy. Father and son team of Peter and Shane Farrell took 3rd in the novice section, this team showing great improvements throughout the year also.
Emmett McCooey and Michael Carbin also had some great results throughout the season as Michael adapted well to the navigators seat and finished the year on a high, taking another beginner class win, their only fault was a missed time point on the night. Gerard Greene and Michael McElwee were 2nd beginner on the night, ahead of Patrick Murphy and Aaron O’Regan.
So that’s it for another navigation season, well done to CoC Damien Connolly and his team of Gary McElhinney, Martin Connolly and all his many helpers. Damien would like to thank Threemilehouse GAA complex, Pat McQuaid’s Garage, marshals, residents, results teams and everyone else who helped in any way. Keep and eye out over the coming weeks for dates on the Squealing Pig Border Navigation Prize giving Night, as well as the National Navigation awards night. Full run down on all class awards will be issued when final standings are available.
Monaghan Motor Club Annual Stages Rally
With just over a month to go until Monaghan’s biggest event of the Motorsport calender, CoC Brendan Flynn and his team are hard at work with the final preparations for this hugely popular event. Keep free the weekend of 26th/27th April and be a part of the action as all help is needed and greatly appreciated. Once again the Hillgrove Hotel will be the Rally HQ with stages to the South West of Monaghan town. Entries will be open in the coming week and keep an eye on this space over the next month for more updates.
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 