Evin Hughes and Pakie Duffy scored the overall victory on the Midland
Navigation Trial on Saturday night last. The pair had a nine-mark (penalty) win
over fellow Co. Monaghan Motor Club members Ciaran Maguire and Mickey
McNelis. Tydavnet man Ryan Treanor and his Granard based driver Shane
Dalton organised the latest round of the National Navigation Championship.
The pair organised an 85-mile event based out of Ballymore GAA Club outside
Granard, Co. Longford. Checkpoints, Timepoint 1 (Tp1), ViaA (VA), and Tp2
all took place between Coonfin and Anneville before the event moved north of
Granard for Tp3 in Aghnagarron Upper. After leaving Tp3 it was into the first
farm lane of the night for the location of VB in Cloghchurnel. Tp4 was located
at the N55. At the point the event crossed to the east side of the N55, where all
of Tp5, 6, 7 and 8 took place south of Kilcogy. The first supplementary route
instruction of the night was received at Tp8 for the route to and location of Tp9.
The supplementary route instruction was in the form of an intermediate
distanced, box tulip diagram. The tulip diagram took crews to Tp9 which was
located on a long since disused road or layby on the far side of the N55 at
Carnagh Upper. From here it was loop back around, travel half a mile before
taking another farm lane which was also in Carnagh Upper for to arrive at Tp10.
The first relaxed section of the night took place between Tp12 and Tp13 in
Cloonagh. The next supplementary route instruction was received here for the
route to and location of VC and Tp14. The route instruction was in the form of
ten images of a digital watch. Competitors were instructed to depart each yellow
(public) road in the direction of the second hand. Example 30 being South, 12
being North, 50 being North West ect ect. This section proved extremely
difficult as only five of the thirty starting crews arrived to both checkpoints.
Control B located beside Ballinrooey cross roads, marked the completion of the
first half of the event and the beginning of a just as tough second half. A
circular herringbone intermediate distance tulip diagram was received at Tp16
in Crannally for the route to and location of TP17. An extra trick here was that
the tulip diagram did not begin immediately, navigators had to plot where the
tulip began, get there first, before using the tulip to guide them to the location
on Tp17. Only sixteen crews arrived to the Tp after using a farm in Coolcor. Of
those sixteen, only three avoided a wrong approach penalty. Another trick was
on the cards after leaving Tp19. Via D was plotted in the middle of a farm in the
townland of Molly. To reach the Via, a long farm lane with lots of direction
changes had to be negotiated. The trick here was that the Via was purposely left
unmanned. Competitors may think on reaching the end of the lane that they took
a wrong turn in the farm causing them to miss the Via, so they may drive the
lane again and waste a lot of time. Car 3 and 4 were through the farm bumper
to bumper and on reaching the end of the lane, stopped and discussed with each
other what to do. They ultimately decided that there was no other possible way
through the farm, so proceeded to Tp20. The penultimate route instruction was
received at Tp22, just north of Ballinalee for to locate VE and the approach
direction of the pre-plotted Tp23. Once again, this route instruction was an
intermediate distance, box tulip diagram. The box tulip contained thirteen box’s
which were all mixed around and each containing a letter. Competitors were
back in primary school here reciting their A,B,C’s as they had to arrange the
box’s alphabetically. The thirteen boxes contained, in this order,
N,S,O,Q,R,P,T,U,X V,W, and Z. Once at the end of the tulip there was only one
possible way to Tp23 on the R194 at Cloonoose. The Speed Regulatory Section
took place between Tp24 and Tp25. The final supplementary route instruction
was received at Tp26, which was at the end of a long farm pass between
Firmount and Kilcourcey. This time competitors received a list of map gridlines
that had to passed through for to arrive at the location of Tp27. Although Tp27
was only two miles away, eleven gridlines had to be crossed, leaving a lot of
work for navigators to do. The final farm lane of the night took place in Cartron
after departing Tp29 for the approach to the penultimate Control in
Ballymacroly. From here it was just a short, relaxed trip over the road back to
the final Control at Ballymore GAA Club.
When results were declared final, it was announced that
Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy were outright winners on a total of 15 marks. The 15 marks were acquired for lateness. 1m at Tp10, 7m at Tp14,6m at Tp17 and 1m at Tp27.
2 nd overall (OA) went to Ciaran Maguire/Mickey McNelis on 24 marks.
3 rd OA was the Sligo/Monaghan pair of Patrick Corcoran/Mickey Conlon.
In the classes, it was Brian Harkin/Jack Brunton whfinished 1 st in the Beginner class,
Jack McKenna/Sean McConnell finished 2 nd
and Joey Finneran/Gerry Kelly 3 rd .
Eoghán Farrell/Peter Farrell finished 1 st in the Novice class,
with Gretchen and Martin Swinburne finishing 2 nd and Adam Langan.
Damien Hagan finished 3 rd .
The Semi-Expert class went to Ciaran Maguire/Mickey McNelis.
2 nd in the class went to Ruaidhri Nash/Eoghan Corr
and 3 rd went to Stephen and Ray O’Neill.
Patrick Corcoran/Mickey Conlon were winners of the Expert class.
2 nd went to Greg Shinnors/Andrew Mackarel and
3 rdto David McCrudden/Martin Tynan.
After receiving their awards, both Evin and Pakie praised Shane and Ryan for
such an excellent and enjoyable event and thanked all the landowners for
allowing the event to use their property. Shane and Ryan also thanked the
residents along the route and the landowners as without their cooperation events
such as this would be unable to happen. They also thanked the plethora of
marshals who appeared on the night for to man all the checkpoints throughout
the event.
The Postponed Skibbereen and District Car Club, Carbery Navigation Trial has
been rescheduled for Saturday 14 th December. The Co. Monaghan Motor Club
CLG, 2025 club membership is now available on the website and Facebook
page.
Killarney Historic Rally
The Killarney Historic Stages Rally also took place on Saturday. The Star
attraction on the day was Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen two-time World
Rally Champions. The pair were driving a 2.5ltr Toyota Starlet belonging to
Jason Black. Unfortunately for the Flying Finn’s, their Starlet developed
electrical problems on the very first special stage (SS). The issue forced them to
stop but after a loss of five minutes, they did get going again and completed the
stage and the remainder of the event.
In the Modified Section, Johno Doogan/Paul Lennon finished 6 th OA. David
Moffett/Martin Connolly finished 8 th OA. Kaine Treanor navigated Chris
O’Callaghan to 10 th OA. Maurice Moffett took his car back off Richard and
finished his rally in 47th place. Pierce O’Callaghan guided Jonathan Pringle to
52 nd OA.
In the Historic Section, Cathan McCourt/Barry McNulty finished 4 th OA and
Damien Connolly guided Keith Lyons to 16 th OA
Conor Mohan navigating for Eamonn Kelly had been leading the rally until they
unfortunately went off the road on SS3. Killian McArdle navigating for Michael
Cahill retired after SS5.
County Monaghan Motor Club 