A warm summer’s day greeted competitors on Sunday last as Monaghan Motor Club hosted their rallysprint event at Rally School Ireland outside Scotstown. The event, which was sponsored by McAree Engineering LTD, attracted a healthy list of competitors all ready to attack the course which had been laid out by Clerk of the Course John Kelly. The gathering crowd were in for a real enjoyable day as they were treated to everything from buggies to Mark II’s and even a Porsche 911.
It was Joseph Smith who claimed victory by just 0.8 of a second from the hard charging Gary McPhillips. The two Escort drivers were closely matched all day but Smith came out on top. Michael Tynan took third place in his Evo 5. There was plenty of action throughout the field. Class 6 was a real crowd pleaser as Michael Conlon powered his buggy to victory by less than 10 seconds from Martin Connolly with David Smith in third, both in buggies. In class 5 Michael Tynan won from Cormac McElvaney and Martin Tynan 3rd. Class 4 saw Gary McPhillips, competing ahead of a big weekend for him at the Donegal International Rally; took the win from Justin Smith in his Escort. Class 3B was the busiest category with 10 competitors making the finish. Vincent Deery came out on top in his Nova beating Ronnie Coulter by just over 10 seconds with Richard Cassidy a further 2 and a half seconds behind in third, both of them in Astras. Joseph Smith took class 3A by 40 seconds from Patrick Corey both in Escorts. In class 2B it was Pauric Duffy who took the win in his Citroen C2R2 by just under 15 seconds from John McCabe in his Escort with Gerry McIntyre a further 3 seconds behind in his starlet. Derek Mackarel took top spot in class 2A in his Nova. The Monaghan man was 16 seconds ahead of Shane Marron in his Escort. He narrowly beat Adrian Foley who was half a second behind in third in his Corsa. Michael Brennan took class 1B in his Nova by almost 5 seconds from Aidan Coyle in his Escort with Damien Connolly taking third in his Peugeot, a further second and a half behind. Finally in class 1A Alan Pickins took victory by almost 8 seconds in his Corsa beating Ronan Greene’s Nova with Kevin Flannagan narrowly missing out on the runner up spot. The Mini driver was only 0.1 seconds behind in third. Kieran McCarra took Entertainer of the Day in his Rover 25. The Monaghan man proving to the crowd that a front wheel driver can be driven sideways on tarmac!
CoC John Kelly would like to convey his sincere thanks to all the marshal’s and club members who helped out on the day. To Rally School Ireland for the use of their excellent facilities, Eamon McKenna for the great job he did as MC which was both informative and entertaining. Also to Frankie McCarey in McCagues pub, Scotstown for hosting the prizegiving and providing the food. Also a big thanks to Brendan McAree and McAree Engineering Ltd for sponsoring this event and coming up with a very unique design for the trophies which were fabricated in their engineering facility at Balinode. Over €600 was raised on the day by Monaghan Motor Club for two worthy charities, Alzheimers Ireland and Downsyndrome Ireland who were hosting their annual Ice Cream Sunday event in Balinode also.
- Monaghan Motor Club Rallysprint Top 10
1Joseph Smith (Escort) 8m 08.28s
2 Gary McPhillips (Escort) 8m 09.12s
3 Michael Tynan (Lancer Evo 5) 8m 10.33s
4 Vincent Deery (Nova) 8m 12.44s
5 Pauric Duffy (Citroen C2R2) 8m 15.94s
6 Cormac McElvaney (Lancer Evo 7) 8m 17.10s
7 Derek Mackarel (Nova) 8m 19.22s
8 Martin Tynan (Lancer Evo 8) 8m 20.84s
9 Ronnie Coulter (Astra) 8m 23.09s
10 Richard Cassidy (Astra) 8m 25.39s
Donegal International Rally
Attention now turns to next weekend as many local crews prepare to tackle the biggest event in Ireland’s motorsport calendar, the Donegal International Rally. Among them are last year’s winners Sam Moffett and James O’Reilly. The Clontibret crew will be hoping to make it back to back victories in their Combilift backed Fiesta WRC. Daniel McKenna and Gary McPhillips will be battling it out for the win in the National section as the two Escort drivers look to rekindle their intense battle during the Monaghan Stages Rally earlier in the year. Josh Moffett and Brendan Cumiskey will be in the hunt for group N honours. Jim Mc Kenna and John McQuaid also bring their class 14 escorts to the Donegal Hill’s. Gerard McQuaid, Anthony Hand, Richard Moffett, and Shane Maguire are also on the top class entry list. Ryan McKenna and David Moffett will surely be in contention in the junior Rally with Brendan McAree sporting his porsche 911 in the historic event. Best of luck to all competitors and full report next week.
Wright’s Heading Back To Belgium
Motorsport Ireland Young Rally Driver of the Year Stephen Wright heads back to Belgium this weekend to take on the challenge of the Geko Ypres Rally in his Peugeot 208 R2. The rally is one of the most popular on the European continent and has attracted a stellar entry including over 40 cars in the R2 category alone and will provide a stern test for the talented County Monaghan driver and his co-driving sister Susanne.
Despite the strong entry, Stephen is hopeful the pair can perform well on the challenging Belgian roads where they have already picked up a string of solid results. Speaking before he set off for Ypres Stephen said; “This rally has provided the toughest field of competitors that Susanne and I will have ever competed against. Our focus will remain on the 208 Rally Trophy and accumulating more points in it. However, it would be nice to be in the mix for a podium among the Junior European Championship runners having narrowly missed out on a top 3 placing on the Circuit of Ireland at Easter.”
It has been almost 2 months since Stephen’s last foray to Belgium where he finished 5th among the 208 Rally Trophy runners on the Rallye de Wallonie but he has kept his eye in by tackling rallies on home soil and working on the set up of the pocket rocket Peugeot. “We’ve completed a couple of local events since Wallonie and the feeling is very good with the car now so I’m excited to get going in Ypres” said Stephen.
The action in Ypres starts on Friday afternoon when the crews leave the historic town to complete 7 challenging stages before the overnight halt. Saturday resumes with a 10.00am start with 13 stages (including the 27.56km Hollebeke stage) to complete before returning to the finish ramp at 10.00pm.
County Monaghan Motor Club 