Ballybay’s Evin Hughes guided local man Pakie Duffy to overall victory on last weekend’s Midland Navigation Trial. The event was a counting round of the National & Border Navigation Championships. COC Robert Howard organised a 70 mile route through some classic navigation country based out of the town of Drumlish. Duffy/Hughes took a clear win with championship rivals Derek Mackarel/Muireann Hayes in 2nd and Richard Cassidy/Paul Phelan taking 3rd.
There was drama even before the event began as Richard Cassidy’s Vectra broke a diff coming off the trailer, seemingly ending their event before it even began. A frantic call to the Mackarel family followed and a car was located but it was back in Stonebridge! Richard & Janice Mackarel met in Cavan and switched cars. Richard made it back just in time for the start.
After a fairly straight-forward start, the event tightened up considerably between TP7 to TP11 which included two Plot & Bash timepoints. Pakie Duffy/Evin Hughes and Shane Dalton/Nigel McCloughrey were both on clean sheets with Dermot Whelton/Mark McCarthy & Michael Tynan/Ciaran Tynan both just one penalty adrift. A jumbled tulip diagram used for TP13 caught out some crews, but everyone found the ‘snake herringbone’ tulip for TP16 and TP17 difficult to decipher.
Duffy/Hughes pulled clear on this section dropping just 1 penalty into TP18. Derek Mackarel/Muireann Hayes were the only other crew to correctly complete this section dropping 11 penalties. Richard Cassidy/Paul Phelan, showing no ill effects from their late car change, also successfully negotiated the tulip but went over maximum lateness at TP18. Despite this, they claimed 3rd overall.
A long Speed Regulation Section brought crews back to Drumlish with no other changes to the leaderboard. So it was Duffy/Hughes who picked up their first win of the season with Mackarel/Hayes in 2nd to maintain their lead in the National & Border Championships. Cassidy/Phelan completed the podium in 3rd place with Dalton/McCloughrey and Tynan/Tynan 4th and 5th respectively.
Mac Kierans/Conor Boylan (55 pens) won the Semi-Expert class from Jack McKenna/Andrew Wedlock (100 pens) and Peter Farrell/Shane Farrell (125 pens). Local men Darren Quinn/Seamus McTigue (53 pens) won the Novice class from Michael Carbin/Conor Mohan (63 pens) & Kevin McCormick/David McCrudden (74 pens). In the Beginner’s class, Paddy Callaghan/Sean Cahill Jnr (129 pens) won from Ballybay men Aaron Dixon/Dylan Lennon (133 pens) with Mark McDermott/Patrick Brides (154 pens) third.
County Monaghan Motor Club 