Oisín Sherlock was back in Spain last week, taking part in Rallye Festival Hoznayo. He was once again navigating for Andrew McCourt, in his Ford Escort MkII. The event got underway on Thursday, with multiple runs of a 6.6km ‘Shakedown’ Stage, followed by a ceremonial start that night.
Three stages were on the cards on Friday, followed by a further seven stages on Saturday. The ten stage, festival event was untimed as it is not classified as a competition – just like ‘Andalusía Festival Legend’ event, in which they completed a fortnight earlier, it was a ‘show event only’, so its main purpose was to bring in huge crowds for to witness cars of yesteryear, rally around and do flamboyant manoeuvres. This time the event was based around the village of Hoznayo in northern Spain. The most memorable part of the event for Oisín, was the ‘human corridor’ from the end of the final stage to the Finish Ramp, back in the Hoznayo Service Park. It consisted of thousands of fans lining the roads, waving flags, dancing around, cheering and waving lit flares all under the cover of darkness.
Evin Hughes guided Karl O’Donoghue to 2nd overall on last weekend’s Skibbereen and District Car Club Endurance Trial. The pair narrowly missed out on the overall win by just two seconds. Arguably, they could have had a commanding victory, as they incurred a minute penalty for an error on the opening selective of the day. Unfortunately, Sean and Caolain McCaffrey retired at Selective 9, while sitting 1st in Class A2N. Their day had gotten off to the ideal start, as on the opening selective, they set the fourth fastest time overall. Unfortunately for them, their Nissan Micra grew weary on the following road section. They managed to get the issue sorted, and were able to complete Selective 2 and onward. However more mechanical gremlins arose later. This time the gremlins were unable to be repaired quickly, so this forced them to retire at Selective 9.
The Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship continued with Mayo Motor Clubs, Forest Rally on Saturday. Derek Mackarel/Eamonn Creedon finished the six-stage event in 5th place overall, and 2nd in Class 5. Steven Corey/Michelle Horan finished 24th OA and 2nd in Class 14. Killian McArdle navigating for Keelan Grogan retired after SS2. Tommy Moffett/Domhnall Lennon retired after SS4.
County Monaghan Motor Club are hosting their annual ‘Charity Static Car Show and Shine’ on Sunday, June 29th. The event is taking place in the Long Stay Carpark at Monaghan Town Shopping Centre. Car entries are €20. General admission will be by donation at the gate. The donations are going towards Crocus Monaghan Branch and SOSAD Ireland.
Oisín Sherlock.
County Monaghan Motor Club 