The rescheduled 2026 Four Seasons Hotel Ronnie Hawe Monaghan Stages Rally takes place this Sunday August 2nd.
Clerk of the course Thomas Treanor assisted by Kerry Stevenson, Garry Farrelly and Eoghan Corr have been very busy behind the scenes getting this prestigious event up and running following the last minute postponement last April.
As well as the bumper entry and three superb separate special-stages other exciting news is the introduction of the Brian McKenna award.
Brian’s family presented this special award to the club in honour of his memory. Brian is especially remembered this weekend during our Stages Rally, and the award is sure to be fiercely contested by all crews in the modified category.
The Brian McKenna award will be awarded to the driver who sets the best time in the modified class (classes 9 -14, 16 and 20) on the fourth stage to be run. The winner must be a County Monaghan Motor Club member and must finish the event to qualify for the award.
Josh Moffett/Andy Hayes are seeded car 1 on the road in their Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, followed closely behind by older brother Sam and James O’Reilly onboard their Hyundai i20 N Rally2. Pierce O’Callaghan navigating for Johnathan Pringle will lead the modified field away, seeded car 15.
Rally programmes will go on sale in shops this Friday and the programme is also available to purchase on your smart phone app store by searching ‘Monaghan Stages Rally 2026’. This application gives real-time updates and the use of interactive maps.
The Carryduff Forklift Rallye Lecale 2026 took place on Saturday last.
The Downpatrick based event counted as round 4 for the Northern Ireland Rally Championship. This tarmac event consisted of four special-stages repeated to make eight stages total. Two individual stages were based between Downpatrick and Ballynahinch followed by another two between Dromore and Baileysmill.
Sam Moffett and Pierce O’Callaghan took their Hyundai i20 N Rally2 home in 2nd place.
Arthur Kierans guided Alan Carmichael to 7th overall in their Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
Richard Moffett and Martin Connolly took the Class 3 win along with the outright modified victory in their Toyota Starlet.
Adam Langan navigated David Porter to 44th overall in their Ford Fiesta R5.
The 82nd edition of Rally Poland took place last weekend. This Polish event counted as round 4 of the ERC Fiesta Rally3 Trophy 2026.
Killian McArdle navigating for Casey Jay Coleman had an excellent fightback following a collision on SS1 which removed a wheel.
Casey Jay and Killian had to fight back from 15th place after SS1, and climbed to 2nd place by the finish. This climb included setting five fastest stage times in a row over the final five special-stages. Paul McPhillips navigating for Cian Caldwell unfortunately retired on SS7 while in 4th place.
Conor Boylan and Derek Mackarel were crowned the 2025/26 Squealing Pig border navigation champions on Saturday last in the Squealing Pig Monaghan.
Recipients of awards and guests at the awards ceremony enjoyed a wonderful montage of photographs from events on last season’s calendar presented by Seán McCaffrey, and were served delicious finger food from the excellent staff at Porky’s restaurant.
Conor and Derek took the border championship victory by a single point over the current national champions Evin Hughes and Pakie Duffy.
Aaron Dixon took 6th driver in the novice class, while Ben Mohan/Damien Hagan took 3rd.
Seán Marron/Aidan Keenan took 3rd in the Semi-Expert class and Darren Lavery/Aaron McGorman took 2nd.
In the Expert class, Ruaidhri Nash/Michael Carbin took 3rd,
Eoghan Corr finished 2nd driver and David McCrudden/Peter Deery took 1st place.
County Monaghan Motor Club 