Author: monaghanmotorclub

Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan successfully defended their Killarney Rally of the Lakes crown to take their second Irish Tarmac win of the year by a well-managed 25.1 seconds.

The Volkswagen Polo R5 crew fought back from a puncture on the Moll’s Gap opener to grab the rally lead on stage four.

Hometown hero Rob Duggan set a blistering time through stage one to grab an early 9.8-second lead on his first R5 outing since 2018. Robert Barrable was the best of the rest in second while Meirion Evans completed the top three. Duggan extended his advantage on Healy Pass but his sensational start was to endure its first setback on the next test.

Galway International Rally winners, Meirion Evans and Jonathan Jackson, set the second-fastest time through Healy Pass but a roll on Cod’s Head put their Polo R5 out of the running. Devine and Josh Moffett were the only drivers to complete the stage before Evans’ off temporarily stopped the stage. The Derry driver flew through the bumps, jumps, twists, and turns of the epic Cod’s Head test, going 14.5 seconds faster than Moffett.

The crews who completed stage three at road speed were given Moffett’s time, putting Devine right back in the mix after his stage one puncture. Devine and Barrable battled for the remainder of the day, trading stage wins with Devine finishing day one’s eight stages with a 7.5-second overnight lead.

Devine was the fastest out of the blocks on Sunday morning’s Moll’s Gap opener. Fourth-placed Josh Moffett showed a glimpse of his usual pace on Ballaghbeama, setting the third-fastest time. The reigning Tarmac champion had extended his advantage over his brother Sam to 9.7 seconds after stage ten.

Sam Moffett’s intentions to bounce back on the succeeding Moll’s Gap test didn’t come to fruition. Instead, his rally-long brotherly battle ended when his Hyundai i20 Rally2 slid into a chicane backwards.

Devine kept his cool through two passes of Gortnagane and Knockrower East to seal another crucial victory in his Irish Tarmac title hunt. Duggan slid into a bank on Killarney’s penultimate test, solidifying Barrable’s second runner-up finish of the year.

Championship leader, Josh Moffett, cruised home in third to secure more important points.

Gary Kiernan had been battling for third in modifieds when late retirements for Kevin Eves, Jason Black and Chris Armstrong handed the Cavan driver maximum points with a 37 second gap to Eddie Doherty.

John McCarthy made it a Ford Escort Mk2 lockout on the modified podium and in turn secured Class 13’s top spot.

Johno Doogan with Paul Lennon alongside finished 3rd in Class 14 and 11th OA, while Piaras O’Ceallachain guided Brian Lavelle to 2nd in Class 13 and 13th OA. Co-driving for Eugene Meegan in the BMW 1M, Paul McPhillips came home 6th in Class 14 and Ryan Farrell guided Dylan Eves to 3rd in the very competitive RC4 category. Calum Maguire navigated Jordan Jervis to 6th in the Junior event.

Brendan Cumiskey and Martin Connolly’s weekend ended after Stage 4. Martin McPhillips and Peter Farrell were sitting 5th in Class 11R before retirement after Stage 14. Raymond Conlon, James McCarville and Shane Farrell were all competing in Class 13 but failed to finish. Arthur Kierans was in the Historic category, navigating for Trevor Wilson in a Porsche 911. However the crew failed to reach the end after a competitive start.

May Day Stages

Stephen Wright had number one on the Jennings Fuels and Lubricants May Day Stages Rally, but it was Aaron McLoughlin and Darren Curran who took the win at St Angelo.

Wright did lead after two stages but dropped well down the order on Stage 3. He did bounce back with three top five stage times to prove his ability and speed.

Martin McPhillips had a start to finish Class 2 victory, co-driving Martin Collins in a Honda Civic.

Sean Craig was co-driver for Derek Robinson in a Talbot Sunbeam and finished 65th OA.

Ryan Farrell was in action again, sitting in with Damien McGauran, however they failed to finish.

Monaghan co-driver Conor Mohan guided Donegal’s Eamonn Kelly to victory in the second round of the FIA Junior WRC, Rally Croatia.

It was an emotional event for the competing crews, as they took to the stages in memory of Craig Breen, who died during a pre-event test for the rally. Breen’s Hyundai team donned a special tricolour livery for the event, with other cars having their own tributes to the Waterford driver.

Sweden winner William Creighton was the early pace-setter in the JWRC, and finished the opening day with a slim nine second advantage. Kelly/Mohan were fifth in the ever-competitive one-make series. A string of second and third fastest stage times, as well as retirements for Creighton and other competitors meant that Kelly/Mohan climbed to third in the category after Saturday’s run of stages. They were only 30 seconds from the second step on the podium and had a comfortable buffer to the cars behind.

There were just four stages to contest on Sunday, and the drama unfolded from the beginning, long-term leader Laurent Pellier developed engine trouble in his Ford Fiesta Rally3, which saw his advantage fall rapidly before he was forced to retire on the penultimate stage. This would have promoted Belgium’s Tom Rensonnet to the lead if he hadn’t developed issues of his own and dropped a minute on the second to last stage. This left Kelly/Mohan in the lead with just one stage remaining, and a 31 second lead over Rensonnet. As they had done for the entire weekend up to that point, the pair kept their nose clean on the final stage to take a historic victory on the world stage.

Speaking at the stage end, Kelly said it was a special result after a difficult period for the Irish rallying community.

“It’s been a mad week and weekend and I just can’t believe it. It is the stuff that dreams are made of. You grow up watching all that’s going on and never thought I’d be part of something like this,” he said.

“It’s been an emotional week for everyone Irish as well so there’s no question about who you could dedicate this win to. There was a man up there in the sky shining down on us and this win is for him.”

In the JWRC points are awarded for fastest stage times, and this allowed William Creighton to extend his championship lead despite reentering the rally after his Saturday morning roll. Kelly and Mohan’s win places them sixth in the championship, just four points off second place.

The next round of the JWRC, Rally Italia Sardegna, takes place on 1 June.

In the main WRC field, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin took the victory, with Ott Tanak second and Esapekka Lappi third in his tricolour Hyundai. Thierry Neuville took the powerstage victory after crashing out of the lead on Saturday. Evans dedicated his victory to Breen. The Irish national anthem was played and tricolours draped over the winning car in a subdued podium.

Mackarel masters Mayo

Closer to home, Derek Mackarel took victory in the Mayo Motorclub loose surface autocross on Sunday. Each competitor was allowed three timed runs and in a competitive field, his best run in his Mitsubishi Evo was over four seconds faster than his nearest rival. On the day, Derek was also presented with the trophy for winning the 2022 championship in Mayo

Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan took victory on the 2023 Circuit of Ireland having led
from the opening stage to claim a 10.2-second win over Irish Tarmac Rally Championship
leaders, Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes.

Devine started the day on the stages in the
Cookstown area with a time 3.8 seconds faster than Moffett.

Desi Henry and Sam Moffett were third and fourth after stage one while Meirion Evans was in fifth.

Cathan McCourt was an early retirement. His Citroen C3 Rally2 broke its driveshaft on the
first junction, costing he and co-driver Caolan McKenna three minutes before getting it fixed
in the next service halt.

Josh Moffett responded to Devine’s quick start by winning stage two
and cutting Devine’s lead to 0.3 seconds heading into service.

Desi Henry held third after two stages, 1.6 seconds ahead of Evans who jumped ahead of Sam Moffett. Jonny Greer
came back from a slow start to move level with Sam Moffett in fifth after three stages.

On stage four, Devine upped the pace and went fastest by 13.3 seconds, which put Josh go
from 0.8 seconds back to 14.1 seconds by the halfway point. The West Cork Rally winner
had a big moment over a Shanmaghry crest, finishing the stage with a puncture. Defying the
odds in his typical fashion, Moffett still managed to set a second-fastest time through stage
four.

Sibling Sam also suffered some damage on Shanmaghry. He lost the power steering in
his Hyundai after an abrupt landing after yet another crest. Moffett lost three seconds to
Greer who had now moved into fourth ahead of Desi Henry.

Josh Moffett responded to the pressure by taking a hat-trick of fastest times between stage
five and seven, including beating the bogey time on stage five.

Evans was back on form at the start of Saturday afternoon’s stages, while Greer struggled on the bumps and Sam
Moffett hit more trouble, losing over 10 seconds stuck in one of stage five’s initial chicanes.
A puncture on stage six cost Desi Henry a minute and dropped him down the leaderboard to
eighth. Just ahead of him was Declan Boyle had slipped 3.4 seconds ahead of Robert
Barrable to move into the top six.

Barrable was to finish the Circuit of Ireland in sixth, however, as Boyle slid off the road on
the final stage of the day.

Sam Moffett completed his eventful day in fifth, continuing to relearn the Rally2 ropes behind the wheel of his new Hyundai. Jonny Greer was getting faster and faster to finish within three seconds of the podium positions in fourth.
Continuing his run of podiums was Meirion Evans in third.

Callum Devine and Noel O’Sullivan ensured they didn’t let their first international rally win of 2023 slip, going fastest
on the Circuit’s Shanmaghry finale by 0.8 seconds over runners-up Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes.

Jason Black and Karl Egan were best of the Modified in tenth overall, less than three
seconds ahead of Kevin Eves. Killian McArdle guided Eddie Doherty to 18th OA and third in
Class 7.

Johno Doogan and Ciaran Marron were two places further back in a similar Ford
Escort MKII. Michael Conlon and Domhnall Lennon took the honours in Class 5.

Declan McKenna navigated Bryan Jardine to 70th OA.

Tommy O’Connell/Emmett Sherry led the historic category after the first stage but failed to
finish the event.

Arthur Kierans, Kaine Treanor and Calum Maguire would also all fail to make the finish as co-drivers in their respective pairings.

Aaron Mc Elroy pp Oisin Sherlock.

Josh Moffett and Keith Moriarty emerged victorious on last weekends Circuit of Kerry Stages Rally, round 2 of the Motorsport Ireland National Rally Championship. The pair finished the nine stage event with just 6.5 seconds to spare over closest rival Callum Devine/Noel O’Sullivan. Despite a few overshoots/spins Kevin Gallagher/Lorcan Moore steered their class 14 Darrian T90 GTR to 3^rd overall.

On the opening stage ‘Mount Eagle 1’ Josh was fastest by 3.4s over Callum through the 12.8km test. While Josh was content with his run, Callum was very unhappy with his performance and mentioned that his VW Polo won’t stop for him quickly enough and struggles to turn in. The next two stages continued the same way, with Josh setting the fastest times, with Callum following closely behind.

In first service Callum’s team got working on the car to try make it more comfortable to drive, but on SS4, it was still Josh in control, as he scored his 4^th stage win in a row. On the road section to SS5, Callum carried out a few small changes to the car, which seemed to help as he took his first stage win on SS5, but only by the tiny margin of 0.6s. Josh once again took the stage win on SS6, but this time just by a mere 0.2s, to go into the final service with a lead of 8.8s.

More setup changes were on the cards during the final service for Callum, and he was much happier during the final loop. Despite not being able to take the lead off Josh, he did manage to win the all important power stage and receive a bonus point to go along with his 18 points for finishing 2^nd overall. That bonus point means that after the opening two rounds of the championship, Both Josh and Callum share the lead.

In the modified battle Gallagher had a huge battle all day with Mark Alcorn/Domhnall McAlaney. After 6 stages Gallagher held a 7s lead, but Alcorn reduced this to 5.5s after SS7. With just two stages to go, Gallagher had to up his game to keep the hard charging Alcorn behind. Amazingly, on SS8, both crews had two overshoots/offs each and still managed almost identical times. Alcorn scored the stage win, but had only reduced the gap by 0.4s. Alcorn was absolutely furious with himself at the stage end as he threw what may have been the class 14 lead away with just one stage and 6.04 kms to go. Alcorn put all on the line on the last stage, but it wasn’t to be as he had another moment and dropped 14.5s, but luckily for him he held onto his 2^nd in the modifieds.

Richard Moffett/Darragh Kelly finished 6^th OA and 2^nd in class 14. Paul Barrett/Kevin Reilly finished 15^th OA and 8^th class 5. Michael Carbin/Dean O’Sullivan finished 22^nd OA and 1^st class 20. David Moffett/Paul Lennon finished 26^th OA and 6^th class 14. Anthony Hand/David McCrudden finished 32^nd OA and 2^nd class 11R. Ashling McArdle guided Des Lyons to 46^th OA and 3^rd class 11F. Brian Comiskey/Declan Campbell 73^rd OA and 1^st class 15.  Jason and Daniel McConnon finished 94^th OA and 5^th class 2. Jack McKenna/Damien Doherty finished 2^nd overall in the junior rally, but more importantly, they were top registered crew in the National Championship, and walk away with full points.

Gary McPhillips/Paul Sheridan were 11^th OA and 4^th class 14, but retired on SS7 and Raymond Conlon/Gavin Doherty crashed out of the event on SS1, both crew were uninjured.

Elsewhere, Conor Mohan was navigating for Eamonn Kelly out in Croatia. With the next round of the Junior World Rally Championship taking place in Croatia in a couple of weeks time, Eamonn and Conor decided to take part in the Quattro River Rally Karlovac as a test for to get the feel of the Croatian roads and the M-Sport Ford Fiesta Rally3 on tarmac. The rally began on Saturday with one Super Special Stage followed by two normal Special Stages.

With rain forecast, the boys hit the stages with full wet tyres, but unfortunately the rain did not materialise leaving the lads no choice but to complete the three stages on the wrong tyre choice. Nevertheless, the lads finished the day in 11^th OA and 3^rd in class RC3. On day two, nine stages were on the cards. The day got off to a great start on the opening two stages they climbed up to 10^th overall, before having a spin and a stall on SS6, which dropped them to 15^th. On the middle loop, they were back up to speed and climbed to 13^th overall. On the closing loop of three stages, the sky opened and left the roads treacherous as they had a hard slick tyre compound on the car. A puncture on SS10 cost them considerable time, but luckily didn’t cause any position loss and they eventually finished 13^th overall and 4^th in class.

Mac Kierans was also in action last weekend in Australia. Navigating for Richie Dalton, they unfortunately clipped a fence post near the end of SS2 which broke a steering arm spelling a rather quick end to their event. No spare steering arm meant they were unable to rejoin the event.

Squealing Pig Monaghan Border Navigation Championship Prizegiving

The Border Navigation Championship awards night took place last Friday in the Squealing Pig in Monaghan town. Michael and Ciaran Tynan scooped the overall award once again after defeating Michael’s son Martin Tynan and David McCrudden via a tiebreaker as both crews finished on 52 points. Michael and Ciaran won the tiebreaker as they had two overall wins. Pakie Duffy/Evin Hughes finished 3^rd overall.

In the classes, Shane Dalton and Oisín Sherlock were 1st Expert, with Darragh Kelly and Ryan Treanor finishing 2nd. 3rd in the class went to Michael Carbin and Conor Mohan.

In the Semi-Expert class, Darragh Kelly and Patrick Corcoran were victorious, with Aidan Keenan and Eamonn Doherty finishing 2nd. 3rd in the class went to Matt Hume and Sean Marron.

In the Novice class, Declan Tynan and Molly Maguire finished 1st, 2nd went to Shane Maguire (Ballinode) and Ciaran Maguire. 3rd Novice went to Shane Maguire (Stranooden) and Aaron McElroy. Martin and Gretchen Swinburne finished 4th in class with Ciaran McGorman and Ryan Farrell finishing 5th. 6th in the class went to Damien Hagan and Anthony McDonald.

PRO: Oisín Sherlock oisinsherlock97@gmail.com

The 2022-23 Navigation Trial season came to a close last weekend with the Donegal Motor Club’s event. The stand alone event based out of Inver Community Centre attracted an impressive entry of 36, despite not counting as a round of the Squealing Pig Monaghan Border Navigation Championship or the National Navigation Championship. Clerk of the Course Bernard Gallagher assisted by Declan McBrearty laid out a 65 mile route from Inver to Lough Eske and back.

The new Monaghan pairing of James McCabe/Oisín Sherlock were seeded No.1 in their Subaru and lead the field away at 21:15. From the start in Inver, it was a short trip over the road to Control A and the start ramp at the Milltown Bar and Filling Station. From the start ramp it was a brief blast over the ‘old’ road and just as you turned for to come out on the ‘new’ road it was turn square left and drop down to the yellow L16252 and Time Point 1 via a grass and bramble covered track.TP2 a Caldry was where the first plot and bash section of the night was handed out. Competitors received no less than 5 Herring Bone Tulip diagrams for to bring them from TP2 to TP3, 4, 5 and finally to the pre plotted Control B.

Despite the sheer number of junctions and the relatively short distance between each one, most crews got to TP3 at the start of a grey lane at Drumaneary with no issues. Car 2 on the road, Shane Dalton/Ryan Treanor were not one of these crews however as the interface for their tripmeter decided to play up making their herringbone diagram useless. They would end up missing TP3 and arrived to TP4 instead. TP4 was located on a yellow road between the approach road to TP3 and the end of the grey lane after departing TP3. TP5 was located just off the main road at Drumgorman Barr crossroads, where the former railway also crossed the road. From here it was down to the Pier and along the coast up past Jacks Quay to the control at Reefpark in Mountcharles.

From this point on, the rest of the navigation took place north of the N56. After departing TP7 just off the N56 to the east of St Peters lough, it was practically  the first half of SS2/4/6 of the 2021 Harvest stages Rally only in reverse as competitors travelled to TP11.

Following a relaxed section on the western edge of Lough Eske it was up into the mountain for a mammoth section through Banagher Hill. The ITC section began after this mountain pass and it brought the event down to Letterbarra for the hidden check car at Drumrone before heading back north again to TP19 at the edge of the Blue Stack’s at Meenaguse Lough.  

A short loop around Meenaguse brought crews into Control C beside Letterbarrow Football Club. More P&B was on the cards here as navigators were issued with three pages of box tulip diagrams for to take them through TPs 21 and 22 and into the pre plotted Control E. Drivers had to turn right at the football club and travel a long grey farm lane before arriving back on the public road and arriving at Tp21 at Lettermare bridge. From TP21 it was turn left and head to Drumrone crossroads, where any overshoot would lead to a 30 double visit penalty at the ITC checkpoint. After turning right at the crossroads, it was down past The Stables Motorsport Centre before turning left and reaching TP22 at the end of a grey lane at Drumkeelan.

Control E was just on the other side of the hill and here the last P&B of the night was handed out. The P&B received was a lot more straight forward than the ones handed out earlier due to this one being a standard grid reference plot for to reveal the location to TP25. TP25 was located at the end of a grey lane at Drumduff. The entrance to this lane was very well disguised due to it not being in everyday use and this caused a lot of competitors to drop time as they debated where the lane actually was.

Only the two final controls remined after this, with Control F being on a grey lane after passing under the old railway bridge at Cranny and Control G back at the Milltown Bar and Filling Station which had to be approached using a private grey lane behind the pub.

Unfortunately for the COC, the first P&B section was scrapped on a technicality saving many crews blushes after numerous crews had dropped time and made errors in this section.

In the end the Beginner team of David Kelly/Gerald Hughes emerged victorious after a tiebreaker win over the Semi-Expert crew of Darragh Kelly/Eamonn Doherty. Kelly/Hughes won the event on the Beginner beats Novice beats Semi, beats Expert rule after both crews completed the event without making any mistakes and finished on 0 marks. 3^rd overall to 8^th overall were all down just one mark, with five of the of them six crews dropping their minute penalty at TP25.

In the classes, Eoin Quinn/Patrick Masterson got the win in the Beginner class after a further cleanest tiebreak win over Caolan Gaffney/Neil McHugh as both finished on 1 mark. Quinn/Masterson’s minute dropped came at TP25 while Gaffney/McHugh’s minute dropped came at TP22. 3^rd in class went to Shane Laverty/Gareth Kelly. Martin and Gretchen Swinburne finished 10^th in class after having a tricky start to the event. Team McGorman switched seats for this event, with Ciaran making his debut in the passenger seat. Aaron and Ciaran finished 12^th in class.

Damien and Keith Sheridan won the Novice class, finishing on 4 marks and just 1 less than 2^nd in class Aidan McDevitt/Aidan Sweeney who finished on 5 marks. 3^rd in class went to Shane and Ciaran Maguire who finished on 101 marks.

Kelly/Doherty were 1^st Semi-Expert. 2^nd in the class went to Emmet Sherry/Ciaran Geaney, while 3^rd in class went to Andrew Mackarel and Ciaran Coyle. Aidan Keenan/Sean Marron were 4^th in class, Damien Treanor/Danny McKenna finished 5^th in class and  Eoghan Corr drove Ruaidhri Nash to 7^th in class.

1^st Expert went to Dalton/Treanor in their 1990cc Impreza, with Conor Harvey/Kevin Gallagher and McCabe/Sherlock finishing 2^nd in class.

COC Bernard Gallagher and the winning crew of Kelly/Hughes thanked all who helped get the event back up and running in Donegal after a hiatus of six years. They also thanked all the residents along the route, the event sponsors and the entrants for all their support.

Top Ten

1^st David Kelly/Gerald Hughes (Subaru Impreza) 0marks,

2^nd Darragh Kelly/Eamonn Doherty (Subaru Impreza) 0m,

3^rd Eoin Quinn/Patrick Masterson (Subaru Legacy) 1m,

4^th Caolan Gaffney/Neil McHugh (Subaru)1m,

5^th Emmet Sherry/Ciaran Geaney (Toyota Starlet) 1m,

6^th Shane Dalton/Ryan Treanor (Subaru Impreza) 1m,

7^th Conor Harvey/Kevin Gallagher (Subaru Impreza) 1m,

7^th James McCabe/Oisín Sherlock (Subaru Impreza) 1m,

9^th Andrew Mackarel/Ciaran Coyle (Subaru Impreza) 2m,

10^th Aidan Keenan/Sean Marron (Subaru Impreza) 3m.

Squealing Pig Monaghan Border Navigation Championship

The Squealing Pig Monaghan Border Navigation Championship prizegiving takes place this Friday night at 9pm in the Squealing Pig. All Welcome.

In this year’s championship, we had a tiebreaker for the overall award.

Michael and Ciaran Tynan emerged victorious on the four round championship. Both themselves and Michaels son Martin Tynan with David McCrudden navigating finished on 52 points, but Tynan/Tynan had the upper hand as they had two overall wins to their name. Their first came on the opening round, the Monaghan Drumlin Navigation and then on round three in Cavan. 3^rd overall went to Pakie Duffy/Evin Hughes who finished on 47 points.

In the classes, Shane Dalton and Oisín Sherlock were 1st Expert, with Darragh Kelly and Ryan Treanor finishing 2^nd. 3^rd in the class went to Michael Carbin and Conor Mohan.

In the Semi-Expert class, Darragh Kelly and Patrick Corcoran were victorious, with Aidan Keenan and Eamonn Doherty finishing 2^nd. 3^rd in the class went to Matt Hume and Sean Marron.

In the Novice class, Declan Tynan and Molly Maguire finished 1^st, 2^nd went to Shane Maguire (Ballinode) and Ciaran Maguire. 3^rd Novice went to Shane Maguire (Stranooden) and Aaron McElroy. Martin and Gretchen Swinburne finished 4^th in class with Ciaran McGorman and Ryan Farrell finishing 5^th. 6^th in the class went to Damien Hagan and Anthony McDonald.

Elsewhere,

Eamonn Kelly and Conor Mohan are in action in Croatia this weekend for to take part in the Quattro River Rally Karlovac. The pair will be using this event as practice for the next round of the World Rally Championship, Rally Croatia which takes place from April 20^th to 23^rd.

PRO: Oisín Sherlock oisinsherlock97@gmail.com