Conor Mohan was the highest placed Co. Monaghan Motor Club CLG member on last Saturday’s, EARS Motorsport Moonraker Forest Rally. Conor and his driver Eamonn Kelly, were using the event for to get used to driving on a gravel surface again, ahead of the next event of the 2025 Junior World Rally Championship, Vodafone Rally de Portugal which takes place between the 15th and 18th of May. The last forest/gravel rally they competed on, on the island of Ireland was the, 2024 Trailer Parts and Spares Lakeland Stages Rally, an event in which they finished 2nd overall. On last weekend’s EARS Motorsport Moonraker, they were driving a similar Ford Fiesta Rally3 to the one that they’ll be using in Portugal, and they finished 4th overall. Fourth was possibly as good as they could have expected to be, as the event had six very fast stages that suited the more powerful Rally2/R5 cars compared to their Rally3 car.
Greg Shinnors navigated James Dunphy to 7th overall in their Ford Fiesta R5.
Killian McArdle, suffering no Jet-Lag from Spain, navigated John Coyne to 11th overall in a Hyundai i20 N Rally2. Jack Casey finished 59th OA and 3rd in Class 8 in his VW UP. Domhnall Lennon navigating for Darragh McEnroe, finished 74th OA, also in a VW UP.
Other Monaghan members were not as fortunate, as Derek Mackarel/Eamonn Creedon got their 2024 Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship winning Ford Fiesta R5, beached at a chicane on Special Stage 2, even though the car was undamaged, they were unable free it quickly, so they had to retire from the event. James McCarville/Arthur Kierans also retired on SS2.
Evin Hughes navigated Karl O’Donoghue to 11th OA in the Galway Endurance Trial on Sunday, they also finished 2nd in Class A2M. Eoghán Farrell navigated Michael Connolly to 22nd OA and 2nd in Class A2N.
Oisín Sherlock
County Monaghan Motor Club 