Three in a row for Moffett in Monaghan

The eagerly anticipated running of the Four Seasons Hotel Ronnie Hawe Monaghan Stages Rally 2026 took place on Sunday the 2nd of August. The Monaghan Grand Prix had originally been scheduled to take place on April 12th, but had to be postponed due to the ongoing fuel price protest.

Clare Motor Club offered to postpone their Mini-Stages Rally to facilitate the Monaghan event, due to a congested motorsport calendar and the Monaghan event being a Triton Showers National Rally Championship and a Sligo Pallets Border Rally Championship counting round. This selfless act by Clare Motor Club reflects the spirt of motorsport at its absolute best.

Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes took a start to finish victory over the nine north County Monaghan special-stages onboard their Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.

The multiple national rally champions took a 19.7s win over Sam Moffett/James O’Reilly

who made a late switch to a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. This was Josh Moffet’s third Monaghan win in a row, having won the 2024 and 2022 event.

Donegal man Kevin Eves was the first non County Monaghan driver home as he and navigator Chris Melly took 3rd place also using a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. Shane Quinn and Stephen Reynolds finished in 4th place. They had been in 3rd place overall until a puncture on SS3 dropped them to 7th.

Gary McPhillips and Ger Conway took the highly competitive modified victory.

The Monaghan/Kerry partnership took their Ford Escort MKII to 6th place overall and took the modified victory by 11.2s over

Dessie Keenan and Jason ‘Wee Pete’ McKenna.

2012 overall winner Daniel ‘Hughie’ McKenna, this time with Ronan O’Neill on the notes took 3rd place in the modified category.

Johno Doogan/Paul Lennon finished 12^th overall and 4^th in class 14. Shane and Paul Maguire finished 14^th overall and 6^th in class 5 in the Maguire Rally Team Citroën C3 Rally2.

Michael Carbin/Dean O’Sullivan finished right behind them in 15^th overall using their Ford Escort MKII.

Calum Maguire guided Tom Jnr Holton to 16^th overall.

Richard Moffett/Darragh Kelly took their Toyota Starlet to 18^th overall.

Jack McKenna/Shane Gilhooley survived a huge scare on the Moy Bridge test to take 19^th overall in their Ford Fiesta R5.

Niall Maguire/Anthony Nestor took the Subaru Impreza S12b for a rare appearance. They finished 20^th overall and 1^st in class 7.

Derek Mackarel/Ava O’Driscoll finished 24^th overall in the Mackarel Motorsport Ford Fiesta R5.

James McCarville/Arthur Kierans finished 26^th overall and 3^rd in class 13.

Seamus Connolly/Gary McCrudden finished just behind them in 27^th overall and 4^th in class 13.

Mac Kierans guided motorbike superstar Michael Dunlop to 29^th overall and 5^th in class 13.

Justin Smyth/Ciaran McGorman finished 33^rd overall and 1^st in class 12.

Gerard McQuaid/Gary Quinlin finished 34^th overall.

Jack Maguire/Keith McConnon finished 36^th overall and 1st in class 11F.

Michael Conlon/Domhnall Lennon finished 43^rd overall and 4^th in class 12.

Barry McKenna/Jonathan McKenna finished 54^th overall and 12^th in class 13.

Ryan Brennan/Ryan Treanor finished 70^th overall and 4^th in class 11R.

Cathal Sheridan/Barry McArdle finished 72^nd overall and 1^st in class 10.

National navigation champions Pakie Duffy/Evin Hughes finished 90^th overall and 2^nd in class 3.

Ciaran Sherry/Adam Langan finished 106^th overall in their Ford Escort.

Michael McDaid/Peter Ward onboard a Ford Escort BDA took victory in the Historic category, with Noel Doyne/Seán Og Doyne finishing 2nd and Brendan McAree/Kevin Treanor finishing in 3rd place.

Jamie Jarvis/Ryan Kennedy took the Junior win with Colin Maguire/Stephen McElroy taking 2nd and Calvin Scott/Seán Boyle finishing 3rd.

Evin Stapleton/Eddie Byrne took the victory in the Dacia Sandero Challenge Cup. Cillian and Laura Doherty took 2nd while Jake and Jack Devine finished 3rd in this one make championship.

Daniel ‘Hughie’ McKenna was the inaugural winner of the Brian McKenna award for being the fastest Monaghan Motor Club member modified driver on SS4.

Modified winner on the day Gary McPhillips missed out on this award by a mere 5 tenths of a second.

The family of Brian McKenna presented this award to Co. Monaghan Motor Club in honour of his memory. Daniel said on receiving this award that ‘I really wanted to be the first name on it’ as ‘Brian was a very good friend of ours and this new trophy is going to make stage four of the Monaghan Rally very interesting from now on.

Molly Maguire in her very first stage rally start was the highest placed female finisher on the day.

Molly and her navigator Conor Mohan took 3rd place in class 2A using their Peugeot 206 Cup car.

The Triton Showers National Rally Championship will continue with the Galway Summer rally on August 23^rd.

Oisín Sherlock.