Author: monaghanmotorclub

Josh Moffett once again switched cars, as he reverted back to his trusty Hyundai i20 R5 from his Citroën C3 Rally2 for last weekend’s Galway Summer Rally. The event was round 7 of the National Rally Championship. Josh and his navigator Keith Moriarty took an 11.2s win over is brother Sam with navigator James O’Reilly. Sam and James were out in the Rally2 Version of the Hyundai i20.

Daniel McKenna/Andrew Grennan were 1^st Modified home, with Michael Carbin/Dean O’Sullivan finishing 2^nd Modified. Pierce O’Callaghan guided Jonathan Pringle to 4^th in the modifieds. Johno Doogan/Paul Lennon finished 12^th OA. Maurice Moffett made a rare appearance and brought his Toyota Starlet home in 24^th OA.  Brian Comiskey/Declan Campbell finished 1^st in class 15. Martin McPhillips/Tony McGovern finished 1^st in class 11R. Cathal Sheridan/Coel Leonard finished 2^nd in class 10. James McEneaney navigated Gerard Tuite to 4^th in class 10. Tommy Moffett/Domhnall Lennon retired after SS4 but rejoined for SS7,8 and 9. They finished 6^th in class 2.

David Moffett/Martin Connolly retired after SS7 while sitting 2^nd in the modifieds. Justin Smith retired after SS5 while leading class 12.

Arthur Kierans was competing in Wales over the weekend, he guided Ryan McHugh to 7^th in class RC4 and 2^nd in the Great Britian Junior section on the JDS Machinery Rali Ceredigion.

Regulations and entry forms are available now for our very own Autotest, which takes place on Sunday the 8^th of September. The event will be round 6 of our 2023/24 club championship.

Clerk of the Course Ciaran Tynan has organised this year’s event which will take place at McAree Engineering Ballinode. Entry’s cost only €55 and no IRDS required.

Shane and Ciaran Maguire took their Mitsubishi Colt home in 2^nd overall on the Westmeath and District Car Club’s Endurance Trial held on Sunday last.

Aaron McGorman/Darren Lavery finished their event with 1^st in Class C in their Navigation Spec Subaru Impreza.

Robert Graham and Caolan Treanor driving a similar Navigation Spec Impreza finished 2^nd in class C.

The final round of the 2024 Endurance Trial Championship takes place on the 22^nd of September, hosted by Birr and District Motor Club.

Modern Tyres Ulster Rally

Josh Moffett returned to his Citroën C3 Rally2 for last weekends, Modern Tyres Ulster Rally. Josh and his navigator Andy Hayes finished the event in 3^rd overall.

Calum Maguire guided Johnnie Mulholland to 13^th overall in their Rally3 Fiesta.

Arthur Kierans competing in the Mayo Autocross in his Subaru Impreza 555, finished his day in 18^th overall.

Derek Mackarel was the leading Monaghan Motor Club member on last weekend’s Jim Walsh Cork Forest Rally, round three of the Sligo Pallets Forestry Rally Championship.  He and his Cork navigator Eamonn Creedon finished the eight stage event in 3^rd place overall, using their Ford Fiesta R5. The event was based out of the Mallow Autograss club with all eight stages taking place in the Ballyhoura Mountain. On the opening stage ‘Ballinaboola 1’, Derek finished the stage 4^th fastest, 4s down on the stage winner. On SS2 ‘Coolfree 1’, they moved up in to 3^rd place overall. For stages 3 and 4, it was a repeat run of both the ‘Ballinaboola’ and the ‘Coolfree’ special stages before a midday service back at Mallow Autograss. On SS4, Derek moved up to 2^nd overall following an overshoot for Niall McGonigle who had been in 2^nd. Derek mentioned at the stage end that his car has a slight power steering issue, but luckily for him midday service was up next.

Two new special stages were up next, each ran twice to finish of the days rally.

On SS5 ‘Streamhill 1’, McGonigle got back in front of Derek on the leaderboard by just 0.8s. The main field cars did not participate on SS6 so the leaderboard stayed the same heading into the final two stages after the days final service stop.

On SS7 ‘Streamhill 2’, McGonigle increased his advantage over Derek to 4s with just SS8 ‘Glennannar 2’, remaining. The leaderboard didn’t change over the final 8.8km of SS8 so Derek and Eamonn took home 3^rd place overall.

Tommy Moffett/Domhnall Lennon brought their Fiesta Rally 4 home in 78^th OA after issues on SS2 ‘Coolfree 1’.

Ryan Caldwell/Stephen O’Brien finished 6^th OA and 3^rd in class 5.

Michael Conlon/James McEneaney finished 14^th OA and 2^nd in class 14.

Jack Treanor/Gary Cassidy were racing at Pallas Karting track in Tynagh on Sunday. The event was the 3^rd round of the RSA Ire Summer series. They finished their days racing with 2^nd in their class.

Conor Mohan and Eamonn Kelly were competing in Secto Rally Finland last weekend, which was the latest round of the Junior World Rally Championship.

The 306 km gravel surface event began Thursday evening with the 3.48km super special stage Harju 1, where Eamonn and Conor missed out on the stage win by just 0.6 seconds.

Friday morning was to be the first full day of rallying but unfortunately for the two lads, special stage two and three were both cancelled for the Juniors. Their event restarted on SS4, but a torrential downpour came which caused Conor and Eamonn to slow down considerably as they had very poor visibility and confidence to drive hard over the 15.51km stage.

Midday service took place after SS5 and at the service the men were sitting 9^th overall (OA), 43.8s down on 1^st, a majority of that 43.8s deficit caused by the heavy downpour on SS4.

On SS6 they were denied a stage win by suffering a slow puncture. Despite the puncture, their turn of pace jumped them four places and they now sat in 5^th OA, 34s down on 1^st. They went one better on SS7, setting the third fastest stage time, which moved up to 4^th place OA. A second fastest stage time on SS8 reduced their deficit to 1^st to 27s. Friday’s stages ended after SS10 and Conor and Eamonn still held 4^th OA overnight with a further six stages ahead on Saturday and four on Sunday. Eamonn said at the end of the Friday “The day started badly but ended really well, with a brace of top three stage times we hold 4^th overnight. Big thanks to Conor Mohan for keeping the show on the road”.

On SS12 Saturday morning they moved up to 3^rd place OA, just 19.9s off 1st at this stage, pun intended…

One of the most legendary special stages in the world was up next, the 33km stage of Ouninpohja, ran in its full length for the first time since 2017. At the end of this stage, they moved up to 2^nd OA, just 8.5s down on 1^st, heading into mid-day service. There was a blow for the team on SS15 when they picked up a puncture not long after the stage start and with the stage being over 20km in length they had no option but to stop and change it. This stoppage caused them to drop to 7^th OA. They did climb to 6^th OA on the following stage before service and the overnight halt. Despite Saturday’s puncture the team spirit wasn’t deflated, again pun intended, so they kept battling on and finished the opening stage on Sunday, 3^rd fastest. They along with the rest of the Junior field were slowed near the end of the penultimate stage so the Juniors were given a nominal stage time based on their speed up until the issue. Conor and Eamonn were given the 3^rd fastest Junior stage time.

The puncture on Saturday cost them two and a half minutes so with only one stage remaining, sitting in 6^th place OA, 2m 27s in arrears of 1^st, and 21.2s off 5^th, Conor and Eamonn took no risks on the final stage and took the car home in 6^th OA. On a positive note, they finished ahead of the brainiest person in South Africa as Max Smart took his car home in 11^th OA. (word play intended).

The final round of the Junior World Rally Championship is the EKO Acropolis Rally Greece, which takes place between the 5^th and 8^th of September. Conor and Eamonn currently sit 9^th in the Championship after mechanical issues with their car cost them good results on two of the four rounds held so far.

Conor Mohan and Eamonn Kelly competed on the HYAcenter Ralli in Finland last weekend.

The pair were using this event in preparation for the next round of the Junior World Rally Championship, Secto Rally Finland, which takes place this weekend.

The event was exactly like the World round, as it was set on similar extremely fast gravel roads with huge crests which require big commitment and nerves of steel.
The pair used a Ford Fiesta Rally3 car, identical to the car they will be using this week for the World round, as its crucial to get the geometry settings correct so the car is set up correctly for when they start the rally Thursday night.
The rally began with a 22.9km special stage (Kehro 1) where the pair finished in 12 th overall and 4 th in their class. On SS2 (Kivijärvi 1) they moved up to 10 th OA and with a fastest time in their class they moved up to 2 nd in class.

On SS3(Latomaa 1) they could only manage a 4 th in class fastest time, which dropped them to 11 th OA and 3 rd in their class. After a service stop and a check over on their car, it was the same three stages repeated plus an extra 8.9km of a new final stage, SS7 (Savo).
On SS4 the repeat pass of SS1 they completed the stage 20s faster than they did on the first pass. On SS5 they went 9s quicker than the previous pass and climbed from 11 th OA to 9 th OA, and from 3 rd in class to 1 st .

On SS6 they went 7s faster than their previous pass, but still fell back to 10 th OA and 2 nd in their class
by just 0.6s. On the final stage which was only 8.9km, they jumped three places to 7 th OA and 1 st in their class by 5.8s to round off a brilliant event and a great warm up for the World event this weekend. The 306km of gravel stages on Secto Rally Finland begin this Thursday night and continues until midday
Sunday, incorporating twenty special stages.