Author: monaghanmotorclub

Josh Moffett alongside navigator Andy Hayes have secured their second Irish Tarmac Championship success on last weekend’s Modern Tyres Ulster Rally.

The pair needing to finish a minimum of 4^th overall on both days, due to the event being a double points round proved most important as their main contender Welsh pair Meirion Evans/Jonathan Jackson won the event overall to claim their first win in the Irish series. Josh and Andy took an unusual cautious approach over the weekend to ensure no mistakes were made that could undo all their hard work over the previous six rounds.

The opening day consisted of three stages in total, including a rare night stage, and after the three stages it was Desi Henry/Paddy Robinson out in front with an 18.5s lead over Evans/Jackson. Johnny Greer/Niall Burns were in 3^rd place, 6.2s further back. Josh and Andy held 4^th OA, 57s off the lead following a day of carful driving, but just doing enough to keep their championship hopes intact. Josh commented different times that’s its almost harder to drive slow and steady than it is to drive on the limit. Jason Mitchell/Paddy McCrudden finished Friday in 5^th OA just 6.6s behind Josh.

Six demanding stages lay ahead on Saturday, and immediately the rally leader drove into trouble. On SS4 ‘Tyrone Ditches 1’ Henry/Robinson clipped a gate post and damaged their steering spelling retirement a little further down the same stage. With Henry’s retirement, Evans/Jackson inherited the lead and extended their lead over now 2^nd place Greer/Burns from 6.2s to 23.3s after Greer had a dreadful SS4 which included lots of moments and an overshoot due to the amount of standing water on the stage. Mitchell overtook Moffett on the leader board by 1.6s as the latter continued to play safe by not driving on the edge.

Evans added a further 3.5s to his lead over stages 5 and 6 despite suffering a road section puncture on route to SS6 and having to complete the stage on a mismatched set of tyres on the front of his VW Polo. He held a 26.8s lead over Greer going into final service with just three stages to go. Mitchell and Moffett continued to hold 3^rd and 4^th respectively.

On SS7 any hope Greer had of a fightback was cruelly ended when he kept too tight in on a hairpin, clipped a rock and punctured. He drove cautiously to the end of the stage to try keep the tyre on the rim to avoid any damage to the car. The puncture cost him around two minutes and dropped him out of the fight for 1^st and into 3^rd OA. Mitchell benefited from Greers mistake to go into 2^nd OA, ahead of Greer by just 11.4s.

With Greers puncture and now having a lead of well over two minutes, Evans/Jackson adopted the same strategy as Moffett/Hayes over the last two stages to avoid any last minute drama. Greer/Burnes won the final two stages of the event to overtake Mitchell/McCrudden for 2^nd OA, a result Mitchell was more than happy with as it was still his first time on the podium of a Tarmac Championship round.

Fourth overall on the event was enough for Moffett/Hayes to lift the trophy for their second time, they were previous winners of the championship back in 2018. It’s been an extraordinary season for Josh as he secured the Triton Showers National Rally Championship in July at the Tipperary Stone Throwers Stages Rally. Throughout the year, Josh has so far won 10 events, Including a four in a row, a five in a row, two 2^nd overalls and one 4^th overall.

Arthur Kierans navigating of Alan Carmichael retired after SS2 while 6^th OA and 1^st Class N10. Paul McPhillips navigated John Gordon to 56^th OA and 11^th in class N6. Patrick Fitzpatrick/James McEneaney finished 53 OA and 3^rd class N3 in their Mk II Escort. Gary McCrudden guided Philip Hamilton to 23^rd OA and 3^rd class N5.

Navigation Trial Classes

REMINDER Navigation Trial classes start this Friday 26^th at 8pm in the Sean McDermotts GAA Centre, Three Mile House Co. Monaghan. €25 Registration fee on the night which includes 2022 club membership, map, equipment and training manual. We have had a lot of interest so far so please get in contact with the Motor Club Facebook page or any committee member.

 PRO: Oisín Sherlock oisinsherlock97@gmail.com

Conor Mohan and Eamonn Kelly scored their second win in a row on this year’s Grampian Forest Rally, round 4 of the 2022 British Rally Championship. The pair finished the six stage event with a 3:50s advantage over 2^nd place, and fellow Irish crew, Johnnie Mulholland/Eoin Treacy.

On the opening stage, the 8.26km ‘Durris’, both Kelly/Mohan and Kyle White/Sean Topping set identical times to hold joint 1^st overall. Mulholland/Treacy finished the stage in 3^rd OA, 13s down on the joint leaders. A great start from the three Irish crews. On SS2 ‘Drumtochty’ Kelly/Mohan pulled a 5s advantage over White/Topping. Unfortunately, Mulholland/Treacy were hampered with fuel pump issues and dropped close to a minute but still held 3^rd.

After service it was into the 15.8km ‘Finglenny’ and White/Topping took the stage win to reduce Kelly/Mohan’s advantage to just 3s. Kelly/Mohan struggled on the middle loop due to the stages being well cut up from the previous cars and the high temperatures which reduced the grip of their well worn tyres. On SS4 ‘Scare Hill’, once again White/Topping took another 2s out of Kelly/Mohan to leave the Donegal/Monaghan pair with a 1s advantage with just two stages remaining. Ongoing mechanical issues left Mulholland/Treacy a distant 3^rd, but crucially still involved.

 During the final service, Kelly/Mohan put two harder compound tyres on the front of their car which allowed them to give the last two stages a good push to try and extend their narrow lead.

The change of tyres worked immediately as on SS5 (Strathgyle) they went a full 6s faster than the second fastest junior. Horrible luck was to strike White/Topping as they picked up a puncture and to add insult to injury, the puncture ripped off a break pipe. The crew made it to the end of the stage dropping 48s, but retirement followed stage exit. This is the second year in a row on the Grampian that a puncture and burst break pipe spelled retirement for the crew.

With White’s retirement, it left Kelly/Mohan with over a 3 minutes lead with just the 14km ‘Hurlie Bog’ stage left meaning the team could relax and concentrate on bring the car home in one piece.

Arthur Kierans was also in action on the Grampian navigating for Alan Carmichael. The pair once again won the National BRC section, making it their third win of the year.

Keith Cronin/Mikie Galvin were the overall winners of the rally in their VW Polo GTI R5.

Closer to home, Derek Mackarel was the highest placed Monaghan competitor on the Jim Walsh Cork Forestry Rally. Derek along with navigator Eamonn Creedon finished 9^th OA and 1^st in Class in the Mitsubishi Evo. The pair were the first non WRC/R5 car home. The 9^th place also secured the Danny Creedon Memorial Perpetual Cup for Eamonn for being the highest placed Cork Motor Club finisher on the event.

Paul Kelly navigated David Condell to 12^th OA and 2^nd class 14. Brendan Cumiskey/Martin Connolly finished 19^th OA and 1^st class 2.  Steven Corey/Conor McGurran retired on SS1. Tommy Moffett/Gary McCrudden also retired on SS1 following a roll. Mickey Conlon/Paul McPhillips retired on SS5 after sliding off the road. They were 4^th in class at the time.

On the other side of the world, Mac Kierans guided Richie Dalton to joint 1^st OA on the Rally of the Bay. The pair finished the 9 stage event just 0.4s down on Clayton Hoy/John Allen, but as the championships sporting regulations calculate results to full seconds, this resulted in Hoy/Allen’s 0.4s advantage being disregarded and both teams being credited with the win.

Navigation Trial Classes

Monaghan Motor Club will once again be holding their popular Navigation Trial Class’s . This six week course is for any aspiring navigators or drivers who wish to learn how to compete in Navigation Trails, as the the new season kicks off on October 1^st. While the class’s are mainly for Navigations, Endurance Trials and Stage Rallying will be discussed on the final night. The course begins on Friday August 26^th. A time and venue will be released soon. Anyone interested should contact the club PRO or any committee member.

PRO: Oisín Sherlock oisinsherlock97@gmail.com

Hi All,

I hope you are all well and enjoying the good weather.

As you are aware we are running seven Marshals seminars in September and October, dates and venues are below. This will help to increase the number of marshals out there as well as giving those who do the course a greater understanding of the role. There will be several draws at each event and everyone will receive a marshal pack on the night.

The dates are filling up fast and there is a good interest in them. Can you please circulate this email to all the relevant personnel in your club so that everyone is aware of the times and dates and so we can catch as many people as we can for this important role at all events.

Clubs	Date	Time	Location	Eircode
Cork, Muster, Imokilly, Skibbereen.	08/09/2022	19.3O	Cork City	P31 F861
Laois, Garda, Birr, Midland.	12/09/2022	19.3O	Portlaoise	R32 KV20
Clare, limerick, Kerry, Killarney.	21/09/2022	19.3O	Limerick	V94 NP64
Galway, Mayo, Connacht.	28/09/2022	19.3O	Swinford	F12 K7F4
Donegal.	04/10/2022	19.3O	Letterkenny	F92 FKX6
Tipperary, Carrick, Carlow, Wexford.	12/10/2022	19.3O	Waterford	X91 P86C
Cavan. Monaghan, ALMC.	17/10/2022	19.3O	Cavan	H12 F6Y7

Regards,

Ronnie Murphy

Safety and Training Officer

Motorsport Ireland

Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes scored their fourth Tarmac Rally Championship win of the season at last weekend’s Cork 20 International Rally.

The pair finished the fifteen stage event with just 8.4 seconds to spare over Callum Devine/Noel O’Sullivan. Welsh man Meirion Evans with Jonathan Jackson on the notes finished in 3^rd place overall.

The rally got underway Saturday morning, and on the opening stage Josh was the man to beat as he set the fastest time by 0.7s from Circuit of Ireland winners Alastair Fisher/Gordon Noble. Devine finished third fastest, just 1.5s adrift and commented that he left a bit of time in the stage. On SS2, Fisher took the rally lead thanks to a stage winning performance, he finished the stage 2.7s quicker than Moffett to take a 2s overall lead. Devine went third fastest again and mentioned at the stage end that he clipped something and though he had a puncture. On the final stage of the morning loop, Moffett reduced the gap to Fisher to 1.3s after finishing fastest on the stage despite clipping a bale and causing some cosmetic damage to the front of his Hyundai i20 R5. Devine set the second fastest time but still complained of handling problems aboard his VW Polo GTI R5 and looked forward to a change of setup in service. Fisher was third fastest, but still only 0.7s down on the stage winning pace, showing just how hard the top three competitors were pushing.

On the middle loop, only SS4 and SS6 took place due to an earlier crash on SS2 that hadn’t been cleared yet. There was no drama on SS4 for the rally leaders as they all maintained their positions, however this was to change on SS6 when Devine went fastest by 4.9s to close the gap to 2^nd to just 1.8s. Moffett went second fastest to take the lead of the rally by a slender 0.2s. Fisher had to settle for fourth fastest after Evans got his first top three stage time of the weekend.

SS7 was first up after second service, and it was an action packed stage with numerous overshoots and spins due to torrential rain that fell after crews had already departed for the final three stages of the day. Amazingly, the top four competitors all spun at the exact same corner due to being caught out on hard compound slick tyres. The biggest looser here would be Devine as he stalled the car after his spin and dropped considerably more time than both Moffett and Fisher. Despite his big spin, Fisher still managed a stage win by a full 6s to regain the lead of the rally that he surrendered in the previous stage. Moffett dropped back to 2^nd OA, 5.8s in arrears. Fisher would score two more stage wins on the final two stages of day one to hold an overnight lead of 12.4s over Moffett. Josh had a tough closing loop as he struggled with commitment on SS8 and a small overshoot on SS9. Devine still held 3^rd OA even with a drop off in pace following big spin and stall on SS7.

Day two consisted of six more stages in three loops of two. Unfortunately, Fisher crashed out on the opener ending what was a fantastic battle with Josh and Callum. Both Moffett and Devine slowed at the scene to make sure they were okay, before being instructed that they were indeed okay and continued. Moffett received that same stage time as Devine due to being delayed longer at the accident. With Fisher out, Moffett inherited the lead, with Devine up to 2^nd and Evans up to 3^rd.

Over the last five stages the leader board stayed the same despite a late charge from Devine, where he had Moffett’s lead down to 3.1s at one point, before Moffett eventually came out on top by 8.4s on what was one of, if not the most toughest rally of the year to date.

Jason McConnon/James McEneaney had a weekend to forget after an accident early on in the event, they got the car repaired before retiring completely after SS10.

Navigation Trial Classes

Monaghan Motor Club will once again be holding their popular Navigation Trial Class’s. This six week course is for any aspiring navigators or drivers who wish to learn how to compete in Navigation Trails, as the new season kicks off on October 1^st. While the class’s are mainly for Navigations, Endurance Trials and Stage Rallying will be discussed on the final night. The course begins on Friday August 26^th. A time and venue will be released soon. Anyone interested should contact the club PRO or any committee member.

PRO: Oisín Sherlock oisinsherlock97@gmail.com

Josh Moffett and Keith Moriarty have clinched the Triton Showers National Rally Championship thanks to their overall win at last weekend’s Stonethrowers Stages Rally which was Round 6 of the championship, based in Clonmel Co. Tipperary. Having won the previous five rounds, Moffett/Moriarty can not be beaten even if they don’t take part in the last two rounds in Galway and Donegal.
On the opening loop, Josh set the fastest time on each of the three stages to hold a lead of 16.6s over Daniel Cronin/Shane Buckley. Gareth MacHale/Ger Conway were in 3rd, a further 13.8s back. Darren Gass had been in 2nd place but unfortunately damaged their Citroen on SS3 and had to retire.
On the middle loop, once again Josh recorded fastest times on each stage. To extend his lead out to 55.1s. Cronin retired on SS5 after he too damaged his car and couldn’t continue. Cronin’s retirement promoted MacHale into 2nd and David Guest/Jonathan McGrath into 3rd.
On the final loop, Josh set two more fastest times plus a joint fastest time on the last stage to seal a comfortable win of 1:09.6s from MacHale. Guest maintained his 3rd place and finished 1:49.1s down on Moffett.
Chris Armstrong/Gavin Doherty were the winners of the modifieds, they ended the day with a 35s advantage over 2n place Patrick McHugh/Pauric O’Donnell.
Brendan Cumiskey/Martin Connolly finished the day in 4th OA, Martin McPhillips/Ciaran Tynan finished 2nd in class 11R and 37th OA. Michael Carbin/Dean O’Sullivan had a tough day and finished 56th OA and 2nd class 20. Gary McCrudden navigated Sam Johnston to 82 OA and 8 class 11F after returning under Rally2.
Kaine Treanor navigating for Ed O’Callaghan retired on the final stage from mechanical trouble while 14th OA and 5th class 14. Paul McPhillips navigating for Eugene Meegan unfortunately crashed out on SS2. Ryan Farrell navigating for Seán Brogan retired on SS6 and Jack McKenna/Emmet Sherry competing in the Junior section retired with engine trouble on SS4 while 2nd OA.
PRO: Oisín Sherlock oisinsherlock97@gmail.com