Author: monaghanmotorclub

Conor Mohan was the highest placed Co. Monaghan Motor Club CLG member on last Saturday’s, EARS Motorsport Moonraker Forest Rally. Conor and his driver Eamonn Kelly, were using the event for to get used to driving on a gravel surface again, ahead of the next event of the 2025 Junior World Rally Championship, Vodafone Rally de Portugal which takes place between the 15^th and 18^th of May. The last forest/gravel rally they competed on, on the island of Ireland was the, 2024 Trailer Parts and Spares Lakeland Stages Rally, an event in which they finished 2^nd overall. On last weekend’s EARS Motorsport Moonraker, they were driving a similar Ford Fiesta Rally3 to the one that they’ll be using in Portugal, and they finished 4^th overall. Fourth was possibly as good as they could have expected to be, as the event had six very fast stages that suited the more powerful Rally2/R5 cars compared to their Rally3 car.

Greg Shinnors navigated James Dunphy to 7^th overall in their Ford Fiesta R5.

Killian McArdle, suffering no Jet-Lag from Spain, navigated John Coyne to 11^th overall in a Hyundai i20 N Rally2. Jack Casey finished 59^th OA and 3^rd in Class 8 in his VW UP. Domhnall Lennon navigating for Darragh McEnroe, finished 74^th OA, also in a VW UP.

Other Monaghan members were not as fortunate, as Derek Mackarel/Eamonn Creedon got their 2024 Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship winning Ford Fiesta R5, beached at a chicane on Special Stage 2, even though the car was undamaged, they were unable free it quickly, so they had to retire from the event. James McCarville/Arthur Kierans also retired on SS2.

Evin Hughes navigated Karl O’Donoghue to 11^th OA in the Galway Endurance Trial on Sunday, they also finished 2^nd in Class A2M. Eoghán Farrell navigated Michael Connolly to 22^nd OA and 2^nd in Class A2N.

Oisín Sherlock

Ryan Farrell was navigating for Johnnie Mulholland on the ‘Go Tour of The Sperrins’ rally on Saturday. The pair finished 23^rd overall, and 1^st in Class 4 in their Ford Fiesta Rally3. Craig McPhillips took part in his first stage rally as a navigator, on the event.  He was navigating for Raymond Gurney in a Subaru Impreza WRX STI. The car had previously been used by Eamonn Boland and MJ, on two World Rally Championship events, back in 2015. Craig and Raymond retired before the start of the final stage, as Craig began to feel very unwell. They had been in 75^th position overall at that time. Thankfully his driver was the only Gurney he needed, as it was only a case of motion/travel sickness, and he began feeling a lot better once he was out of the car and walking around. It genuinely was a sickening reason for retirement.

Killian McArdle was navigating for Casey Jay Coleman in ‘Rally Sierra Morena’, which was the opening round of the 2025 European Rally Championship. The lads had some competitive times, but were hampered on SS3 following a high-speed spin, which cost them 15s. On the final stage of the opening day, they unfortunately picked up a puncture, and with the stage being 27.2km long, they had no choice but to stop and replace the tyre. This stoppage cost them over four minutes, and left the pair feeling deflated themselves, after what had been an encouraging performance up to that point. The puncture dropped the pair from 43^rd overall, to 76^th at the overnight halt. Six more stages lay ahead on day 2 of the event, and by the finish of the final stage, they had climbed back to 53^rd overall and 6^th in the M-Sport Fiesta Rally3 Trophy.

County Monaghan Motor Club CLG are hosting a Pedal Car Race on Sunday, April 27^th. Participants can race three or four wheeled cars or trikes. Each team has two drivers, aged from 13 to 18, and their parent/Guardian, who can be their mechanic/person to roar ‘PEDAL FASTER’. For more information, contact Brendan Flynn via email on brendanflyn@gmail.com

Oisín Sherlock

Sam Moffett and Shane Buckley finished 3^rd overall on last weekend’s Circuit of Kerry Stages Rally. The Tralee based event was Round 2 of the Motorsport Ireland Triton Showers National Rally Championship.

County Kilkenny man Eddie Doherty navigated by County Limerick’s Tom Murphy took a start to finish victory in their Skoda Fabia R5. The pair finished 27.3s ahead of 2^nd placed Robert Barrable/Gordon Noble who were driving a Rally2 version of the Skoda Fabia. (Moffett finished 9.8s off Barrable).

Paul Barrett/Darragh Kelly took their Citroën C3 Rally2 home in 7^th OA and 4^th in Class 5. Brendan Cumiskey/Martin Connolly finished 9^th OA in their VW Polo R5. Michael Carbin/Dean O’Sullivan finished 14^th OA and 4^th in Class 14. Tommy Moffett/Domhnall Lennon finished 25^th OA and 3^rd in Class 2. James McCarville/Arther Kierans finished 26^th OA and 3^rd in Class 13.

Johno Doogan/Paul Lennon retired after SS1. Daniel McConnon navigating for Frank Rafferty, also retired after SS1. Defending national champions, Josh Moffett/Keith Moriarty retired after SS6 with fuel pressure issues. They had been in 2^nd position overall at that stage (pun intended).

Rallye La Llana

Killian McArdle was competing in Spain last week. Killian was navigating for fellow Irishman, Casey Jay Coleman on in a Ford Fiesta Rally3. The pair finished the ten stage, two-day event in 19^th overall. The lads were using this event as a competitive test session for to get the car set up correctly and get a feel for Spanish Tarmac, as they are back in Spain this weekend, competing on the opening round of the European Rally Championship. Last week’s event was ideal for testing as it included three Service’s between the ten stages, so they had plenty of chances to try out different car set ups and find out if the changes worked or not.

The provisional National Navigation Trial Championship, points after the final round were published on Saturday. Ryan Treanor/Shane Dalton are the provisional champions after claiming 102 points in the ‘Best six plus Bonus’ total. A competitor counts their best six results out of the eight championship events, and receive five bonus points for starting six out of the eight events.

Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy are provisionally in 2^nd place finishing on a total of 96 points. Andrew Mackarel finished 3^rd OA in the ‘Drivers’ championship while his navigator Gregory Shinnors finished 4^th in the ‘Navigators’ championship.

Gregory Shinnors finished 1^st Navigator in the Expert class due to missing out on 3^rd place overall. Oisín Sherlock finished 3^rd Expert Navigator.  Ciaran Maguire/Cathal McGlone, although not competing together as a team, finished 3^rd in the Semi-Expert class.  Gretchen and Martin Swinburne were comfortable winners of the Novice class. Darren Lavery/Aaron McGorman finished 2^nd in the Beginner class. (All results remain provisional at time of writing)

Oisín Sherlock

Evin Hughes and Pakie Duffy are provisionally ‘The Squealing Pig Border Navigation Championship’ champions for the 2024/25 season, following the final round in Donegal on Saturday night last.

The final event took place around Cranford in north County Donegal. Aidan Friel and Charlie McMonagle organised a seventy-five-mile event taking in the area between, Carrickart, Creeslough, Termon, and Milford.

The competitive section began at Timepoint 1 (Tp1) on the R245 at Duibhleann Mór. The first Supplementary route Instruction was received at Tp3 in Duibhleann Riach for the location of Tp5. (full route card of plots was received) Crucially, the next checkpoint after Tp3 was Via 4 (V4). Anybody who did not immediately plot the location of Tp5 on their map would inadvertently pass by Tp5 en route to the Via, as Tp5 was located on the shortest route. If this occurred, a competitor would receive a ‘Wrong Approach’ mark (penalty) or a ‘Double Visit’ mark if they arrived back after V4. All of Tp3, 6, 7 and 8 involved lanes around Devlinmore Hill and Croaghnadownies. The event’s second Supplementary Route Instruction was received at Tp10 in Tullagh for to get to the location of Tp11 and V12. This time, the route instruction was in the form of a two page ‘Intermediate Distance’ ‘Box tulip’ diagram. Navigators had to be extremely careful, as some of the direction changes were only a few meters apart and two of the twenty-one diagrams were upside down. Tp11 to Tp16 including V12 and 14 were all located in the vicinity of Carrickart.

 From here, the event moved toward Creeslough, with V17, Tp18 and Tp20 located beside Lackagh Bridge. (Tp19 was located in Carrick Hill). From Tp20 it was over to Glen village for the two midpoint Control’s (CB and CC). At CC, the Speed Regularity Section began. This strict average speed section brought the event to the outskirts of Termon. Tp22 was located in a farm in the townland of Skerry. The event’s third Supplementary Route Instruction was received at V23 for the location of Tp24. The instruction received here, was in the form of a trace diagram, where navigators had to match the trace image to a part of their map to reveal the route to and location of the checkpoint.

Some competitors may have expected to receive the location of Tp31 at Tp30, but they instead received a circler ‘Herringbone tulip’ diagram for the likewise missing Tp33, as they had received the location of Tp31 earlier in the night at Tp3.

Following Tp33, it was a short trip over the road to the penultimate Control, CD, just outside the gate of the Cranford Community Centre. The final Control, CE, was located just inside the centre door.

On the night Aaron McElroy/Declan Tynan finished 1^st in the Expert class and 3^rd overall (OA).

Adam Langan/Paddy O’Donnell finished right behind them in 4^th and 1^st in the Novice class.

Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy finished 5^th OA and 2^nd in the Expert class. Ciaran Maguire/Mickey McNelis finished 6^th OA and 2^nd in the Semi-Expert class.

David McCrudden/Martin Tynan finished 7^th OA and 3^rd in the Expert class.

Darren Lavery/Aaron McGorman finished 10^th OA and 1^st in the Beginner class.

Michael Sheridan/Cathal McGlone finished 12 OA and 3^rd in the Semi-Expert class.

Adam Jordan/Aaron Dixon finished 13^th OA and 3^rd in the Novice class.

Oisín Sherlock/James McCabe finished 14^th OA.

Elijah Dixon/Abraham Dixon finished 19^th OA.

The full list of Monaghan Motor Club members results in the Squealing Pig Border Navigation Championship will be released in due course.

The Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship began on Sunday last with Carlow car Club’s Forest rally. Defending champions Derek Mackarel/Eamonn Creedon got their title defence off to an ideal start as they finished the six-stage event in 3^rd place overall. James McCarville/Arthur Kierans took their VW Polo GTI R5 home in 14^th OA. Jack Casey/Ciara Duggan took their VW UP home in 66^th OA and 1^st in class 9.

Oisín Sherlock

The NAPA Auto Parts Irish Tarmac Rally Championship (ITRC) began last weekend, with Cork Motor Club’s West Cork Rally, which was sponsored by the Clonakilty Park Hotel. Despite the event being Round 2 for the ITRC, it was the first event held, after Round 1, The Galway International Rally was postponed following damage caused to the surrounding area by Storm Éowyn.

The competitive part of the event began on Friday afternoon with two special stages, SS1 Ballinascarthy 1, followed by SS2 Rossmore 1. After these two opening stages, it was into service before a repeated pass of both special stages under the cover of darkness.

A further eight special stages lay ahead on Saturday before a final six special stages on Sunday.

The rally finished on a disappointing note. Jon Armstrong/Shane Byrne were the fastest crew over the event’s eighteen special stages and crossed the finish line of the final stage in first place overall (OA). However, the engine in their Ford Fiesta Rally2 expired soon after, meaning they were unable to drive the car back to the final control which was located in Parc Fermé. 

They did eventually get the car back but they were deemed as having received ‘outside assistance’ contrary to Article 6.16 of Appendix 29 of the Motorsport Ireland Yearbook, and as such were excluded from the finishers list.

The event was won by Keith Cronin/Mikie Galvin onboard a Citroën C3 Rally2, who were in 2^nd place at the finish line of the final stage.

Josh Moffett co-driven by Andy Hayes was the top Monaghan Motor Club member, finishing in 2^nd place driving a similar C3 Rally2.

Arthur Kierans navigating for David Kelly finished 4^th OA in their VW Polo R5.

Cathan McCourt/Barry McNulty finished 6^th OA, driving a Hyundai i20 N Rally2.

Killian McArdle navigating for Joseph Kelly retired on SS15 Sams Cross 1.

The Navigation Trial season comes to a close this Saturday night with Donegal Motor Club’s Eamon Harvey Memorial Navigation Trial. The event will be the final round of the, The Squealing Pig Border Navigation Championship’. The event is being organised by Aidan Friel and Charlie McMonagle and will be based out of Cranford Community Centre, with the first car starting at 20:46.

Oisín Sherlock.