As the dust settled on an incredible day in the woods above Ballyvourney, the tale of the 2023 Moonraker Forest Rally will always be remembered for a break-out victory for youngster Ryan Caldwell on a remarkable third round of the 2023 Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship. Guided by the incredibly experienced Arthur Kierans, Caldwell would bring his Skoda Fabia R5 home with 9.1 seconds to spare.
Although the data will show six stages victories from eight, and a start-to-finish lead for the youngster, in reality the times were incredibly tight with the top of the time sheets often separated by little more than a handful of seconds. One of those who remained firmly in the hunt all day was Vivian Hamill & Andrew Grennan, who would bring their VW Polo GTi R5 to second place having traded amongst the podium places throughout the day.
The battle for the final step of the podium would eventually come down to the Ford Fiesta Rally2 of Niall McCullagh & Gordon Noble versus the Citroen C3 Rally2 of Conor McCourt & Caolan McKenna. McCourt would pull 4.3 seconds out of his rival on the final 15.6km Knocknabro stage, but it wouldn’t be enough as McCullagh would still have just 0.4 seconds to spare.
Derek Mackarel debuted his new Fiesta R5 with Eamonn Creedon on the notes. Gaining experience and knowledge of the car was the main aim for the man who made his name hunting down much more powerful cars in his Nova. They would fail to make the finish, but Mackarel showed his potential when he matched rally winner Caldwell on the times on just his fourth stage in the car.
In the 2WD battle, it was set to be a classic showdown between long-time rivals and friends Mickey Conlon and Shane McGirr, and things played out right to form as the pair spent the day trading times across the eight Moonraker Forest Rally Stages. McGirr and Ben Taggart bent an axel in their Lada VFTS on the opening loop, but by mid-day service sat just 5.1 seconds off Conlon.
With all his experience though McGirr wasn’t able to reel in the ever-quick Conlon & Paul McPhillips, and for a second year in a row the Ford Escort Mk2 would return victorious after an incredible day of action with 4.9 seconds to spare. Third place would go to Stewart McClean & Gerard Neeson, capping a remarkable day for the pair in their Vauxhall Nova.
Mac Kierans swapped McRae for McKenna as he sat alongside Jack in his Class 16 Honda Civic for a class win.
Killian McArdle was with Pete McCullagh in his Mitsubishi Evo, but failed to finish.
The J1000 side of things was frantic from the start, with Tommy Cronin & Derek Butler racing into an early lead leaving the Derreennaling opening test with a lead of over 5 seconds to rival Tommy Moffett & Domhnall Lennon.
Moffett would respond with two fastest times to hold a slender lead after three stages, but Cronin put in a charge on the longest stage of the day and built a buffer to keep Moffett at bay in second with another strong haul of points.
‘Show and Shine’ success
Monaghan Motor Club held a static ‘Show and Shine’ car show at the weekend, which saw some wonderful machines on display.
The event was organised with the proceeds going to two local and worthwhile charities, Monaghan Crocus Cancer Support and SOSAD Monaghan.
The weather thankfully held out until the last raffle prize giveaway, with the sunshine adding to the event’s success.
All support and attendance was much appreciated, with a special word of thanks to the great organising team that was led by Fintan Larmer.
County Monaghan Motor Club 