County Monaghan Motor Club

Monaghan Motor Club held their annual awards night on Friday last in the Four Seasons Hotel Monaghan. Special Guests on the night ware Alan Carmichael and Eamonn Kelly. Alan Carmichael drove Arthur Kierans to his third British Rally Championship title, this year in the National Section. Arthur previously won the R2 and the Outright championship with Daniel McKenna in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Eamonn Kelly drove Conor Mohan to their maiden BRC win, taking victory in the Junior category. The drivers spoke highly of their navigators, and thanked them for their help and experience all season. The perpetual cups for the Ronnie Hawe Stages Rally were presented. Josh Moffett and Jason McKenna won the Maguire International Cup for being the highest club finisher on the day. The Keenan Stainless Steel Cup was presented to Dessie Keenen and Enda Sherry for being the highest club finishers in class 14. The Squealing Pig cup went to Justin Smith and Gregory McQuillan who were the best club members in the 2 litre class. Anthony Hand and Ryan Farrell were presented with the JG Kelly Supplies cup for being the top club finishers in the 1.6 litre class. Gary Cassidy and Bradley Maguire received the CombiLift Cup for being the best club members in class 16.  Shane and Paul Maguire received the McElvaney Cup for being the highest placed club members in Group N.

There were joint winners of the Ladies award as both Emer McGlone and Gretchen Swinburne could not be separated in the Traders Championship.

In the Gary Nesbitt Club Navigation Championship, Michael Tynan and Conor Mohan were overall winners. 1^st in Beginner went to Elijah Dixon and Marco Lennon. 1^st Novice went to Aidan Keenan and Sean Marron. Eoghan Corr and Shane Maguire finished 1^st Semi-Expert and Derek Mackarel and Conor Boylan finished 1^st Expert.

Finally at the end of the night it was the big one, the club Traders Trophy. This highly sought after cup went to all star Derek Mackarel. Derek took the honours on the very last round of the championship at Cavan Motor Club’s autocross by a single point from Conor Boylan. A very emotional Derek gave a lovely speech in which he thanked his family for the support all year, Conor Boylan for navigating for him throughout the season and the COC’s and landowners. Derek is the third Mackarel to win the award after his uncle George, mother Janice and father Andrew. He is also the cousin of another former winner, Ashley McAdoo.

Cavan Autocross

Josh and Sam Moffett took 8^th and 9^th overall respectively at Cavan Motor Club’s Autocross on Sunday last, round 2 of the Cootehill Precision Engineering Autocross Championship. The pair were double driving Sam’s Toyota Starlet on the loose surface track in Latton. After the best three of five timed runs were calculated, Josh finished the day with a 9 second advantage over Sam.

In the buggy class, Martin Connolly finished 2^nd OA, finishing less than 1s in arrears to overall winner Aaron Haslett. Paul Lennon finished 8^th OA and Conor Boylan on his second ever start in his new buggy finished 15^th OA.

PRO Oisín Sherlock oisinsherlock97@gmail.com