Galway Summer Rally
It was another good day on the stages for Monaghan’s Josh Moffett. The Combilift Rallying driver, navigated by John Rowan, took a convincing win in Group N on the Galway Summer Rally last Sunday and has gotten his bid for 2014 National Group N honours back on track.
Moffett made his intentions clear on stage one with a time of 10:30.6 which was 14.6 seconds ahead of Stephen McCann and Paul Kelly. Championship leader Shane Maguire and Stephen Thornton were a further 10.8 seconds behind in third. By the time cars entered first service Moffett had increased his lead to 45.2 seconds over Mc Cann with Maguire not letting second out of his sight, he was just twelve seconds behind in third.
Drama was to follow on stage 4 as Stephen McCann rolled his Evo 9 out of the event and by second service Moffett was in full control and led the Group N field by over a minute and a half. On the final loop there was no let up on the charge as the Combilift Rallying driver crossed the finish line almost two and a half minutes ahead of fellow Monaghan rivals Shane Maguire and Stephen Thornton who finished 2nd in class and 9th over. Speaking at the end of the rally Josh had this to say ” Yeah we’re over the moon, it was a great rally some great stages. The result will really help with regards the championship as we missed a few rounds earlier in the year.” Maguire/Thornton’s 2nd in class was a valuable points haul as they still lead the group N championship.
Elsewhere Jim McKenna and Thomas Treanor who took 5th in class 14. Jonathan Treanor navigated Colin O’Rourke to 3rd in class 13. It was a good day for Packie Duffy and Evin Hughes who took second in class 3. Commiserations to Emmett Sherry, Justin Smyth and James McCarville who failed t make the finish.
The event was won by the Boyle cousins, Declan and Brian from Donegal with almost a minute of an advantage over top seeds and Welsh man Hugh Hunter . Roy White and James O’Brien rounded off the podium places in third in the MG ZR Rover.
National Loose Surface AutoCross Championship
Congratulations to Derek Mackarel who took his Scanbitz Nova to 3rd overall and a class win in the Carlow Loose Surface Autocross on Sunday. This result increases Derek’s overall lead of the National Loose Surface Autocross with two rounds remaining.
Clare Stages Rally
Sam Moffett and Cavan’s Gary Kiernan are to swop cars for the Clare Stages Rally. Sam will get behind the wheel of Gary’s MK2 Escort to experience rear wheel drive for the first time while Gary will have a go in his Evo 9. Speaking on Monday Sam said; “I’ve always wanted to have a go in a proper rear wheel drive car and I’m grateful to Gary for giving me the chance. We’d been talking about it for a while and Clare seemed like a good rally for us to swap. Gary was out in Germany recently doing my gravel notes and my Evo hasn’t done much rallying since I started using the Fiesta so it’ll be a good opportunity for him too.”
Night Navigation Classes
Please note that Monaghan Motor club have started their night navigation classes ahead of the upcoming night navigation season. These classes started on Friday 29th August but have now moved to a Wednesday night due to unavailability of Threemilehouse GAA complex on a Friday. Its not too late to join in these classes so if you wish to learn more about the sport of night navigations or indeed stages rallying please feel free to attend these classes in Threemilehouse GAA complex on a Wednesday night at 8pm sharp.
County Monaghan Motor Club 