Author: monaghanmotorclub

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.

Molly Maguire navigated her brother Shane to the overall victory on the Monaghan March Navigation Trial last weekend.

Conor Mohan and Michael Carbin organised this event, which was based out of the Ballinode Community Centre.

The competitive part of the event, began at 21:01, when the first of the 33 starting teams left the headquarters. The first farm lane of the night was used for the approach to Timepoint 2 (Tp2), in Glasdrumman. After departing here, it was onward to Tp3, located at what the locals call ‘The Blind Lough’ (Tully Lough). The next checkpoint after here was Via 1 (V1), located on the Tirnaneill-Errigal road at Legacurry, which had to be approached using the twisty ‘Sheetrim’ and ‘Drumhillagh’ roads. It was over to Corra cross now, left toward Tydavnet and taking the next road on the right for ‘Killygavna’, before arriving at Tp4 back on the Tirnaneill-Errigal road. The events first Supplementary Route Instruction was received here for to guide competitors to the previously unknown location of, Tp5 and 6. This route instruction was in the form of a cumulative distance, two-page box tulip diagram. Navigators had to keep turning the page over to see which junction was up next, just in case the images were out of order. The first page of 12 images, and the first image on the second page were all in order. The second image on page two was, a ‘straight through an x roads’, however the distance on the car’s tripmeter wouldn’t add up, but the junction competitors were at, at this point, was in fact an x roads, so making the error of going straight through could be forgiven. The actual image that matched the distance was an upside down ‘turn left at x roads however. Even if a navigator did notice that the distance was incorrect and found the correct image, it was possible to not realize that it was upside down and interpret the ‘turn left’ as a ‘turn right’ either way, going straight through or turning right would bring competitors to Tp6 instead of 5. The correct thing to do was ‘turn left’ and arrive at Tp5 just 150m over the road at a T junction. After departing here left, it was back into the same farm as before only to go ‘straight through’ the x roads on this occasion. This section of the event caught out thirteen crews who received at least a ‘wrong approach’ mark (m). Many of the thirteen however, made an error at one or both of the checkpoints or received a ‘Double visit’ mark if they went back to get Tp5 after inadvertently arriving at Tp6 first and then returned back into the vicinity of Tp6 once more. This whole section took place in a farm in the townland of Ardnasallem.

The first Time Recovery Section (TRS) took place between Tp8 and 9 in Tamlat, and it was here that the Speed Regulatory Section (SRS) began. This 8.5-mile section brought competitors to Tp10 in Drumbristan, just north of Carrickroe. From here it was north toward Tp11, where competitors received the events second Supplementary Route Instruction for to find the location of Tp12. This route instruction was a simple full normal looking route card, only with the location of Tp12 written between V2 and Tp22. There was no trick here however, as the trick lay 2km away in Mullinacask. Tp12 was located in Killybrone with the southern approach on a long private lane. The shortest route between Tp11 and 12 was via Mullinacask, which was where the secret SRS check car had been located. Any competitor that hadn’t marked its location on their map, would forget about it and unintentionally pass by once more and receive a double visit mark as a result. Another cheeky sting in the tail was the location of Tp13 at Fort Singleton. The approach was from the north on a narrow public road. The cheeky thing here, was that the public road kinked right but there was a big house yard in front, that looked just like the road and the house lane followed the bends of the public road. Any competitor that continued onward would be met with a ‘wrong approach’ mark. Amazingly, only five competing crews would escape a wrong approach mark here, which shows just how well the trick was laid out.  A short respite was on the cards here as the next TRS was between Tp14 and Control B (CB) in Carrickroe.

Tp15 was located over the road in Glen More, before it was time to cross the R186 for two loops of Bragan Mountain, one for Tp16 on a gravel track beside ‘The Rock Bridge’, and a second one for Tp17 at Barratitoppy Upper. It was at Tp17 that the next Supplementary Route Instruction was received. This route instruction was in the form of a ‘Trace diagram’. The trace diagram revealed that Tp18 was located in the centre of Esh Forest. Competitors had to enter the forest from the Knockballyroney side, turn right at the ‘Tin Hut’ out onto the Golan Road, travel north and re-enter the forest at ‘Caulfield’s chicken house’ before arriving at Tp18 at the end of the ‘short’ Esh Forest loop. The final TRS was located in Clontycasta between Tp19 and 20. Tp21 was located in Sally’s farm in Feebaghbane, which had a northern departure, using a cow lane for to arrive at V2 on the following public road. This checkpoint had to be departed from, using a private house lane. Twisty public roads in Agherakeltan and Drummans had to be used for Tp22 and 23 as the event moved to Greenfield Eggs, before turning back toward Scotstown. Tp24 was located in a farm at the end of Knocknagrat lane before it was over to Kibberidog x roads for Tp25 and to collect the penultimate Supplementary Route Instruction. The route instruction received here was in the form of a ‘Snake Herringbone Tulip’ diagram, with cumulative distance marked between each junction, which included ‘Mapped, un-mapped roads, gates and any openings. The diagram received included 28 junctions in just under two miles. It was a southern (right) turn at Kibberidog cross before eventually entering a private lane in Mullyera and taking a cow pass to the Annyalty public road. Once at the public road, it was a left turn before arriving to Tp26 in a farm in Tattindonagh. There was another sting in the tail here, as the final Supplementary Route Instruction was received. There was a notice on the reverse side that informed the competitor that the following ‘Snake Herringbone Tulip’ was to be read in opposites. Anyone failing to understand this would receive a wrong departure and a double visit penalty immediately as the first junction was only a few meters away. The correct departure, was down a cow lane and follow the previous lane back to the Annyalty road, take left once again, and just after the turn for Tp28, turn left into a cow lane that ran parallel to the public road. On this lane, competitors had to take a right turn onto the public road, turn immediately right once again before arriving at Tp28 100m down the road. The departure from here, was a hairpin right and back into the cow lane, but taking left on the public road for to reach the penultimate Control, just at the edge of Ballinode Village in Killygrallan. It was just a shot trip through the village now for to reach the final Control back in Ballinode Community Centre.

When all the results were totted up it was the Maguire siblings who came out on top having picked up just 19m. 15 of which were from receiving a wrong approach at TP13. In second place was David McCrudden/Martin Tynan who finished of 23m. Aaron McElroy/Declan Tynan finished 3^rd on 24m.

After receiving their awards for winning the March Navigation Trial, Molly thanked all the residence along the route, all the landowners, all the people that provided refreshments in the hall after the event finished and the plethora of Marshals for coming out to help make the event a tremendous success. Conor and Michael thanked all the residence too for the cooperation, all the landowners for allowing the event to use their property and all the Marshalls that came to man the 35 or so locations throughout the event.

In the classes, Carol and Rian Patterson finished 3^rd in the Beginner class, Damien Cahill/Martin McEntee took 2^nd and winners of the Beginner class were Elijah and Abraham Dixon.  Adam Langan/Paddy McDevitt took 3^rd in the Novice class, Adan Jordan/Aaron Dixon took 2^nd and Aidan McDevitt/Aidan Sweeney finished 1^st. Michael Sheridan/Cathal McGlone took 3^rd in the Semi-Expert class, Ciaran Maguire/Mickey McNelis finished 2^nd and Ciaran Coyle/Shane Laverty finished 1^st. In the Expert class, Oisín Sherlock/Darragh Kelly finished 3^rd, Aaron McElroy/Declan Tynan finished 2^nd and David McCrudden/Martin Tynan finished 1^st.

At the end of the eight-round championship, the Monaghan/Longford pair of Ryan Treanor and Shane Dalton are provisional champions. This would be Ryan’s second title and Shanes first. Shane missed out on the title a few years ago as Shane did not drive Ryan on all rounds and as such, Shane missed out on the all-important points Ryan received. The Championship results will be confirmed soon.

Oisín Sherlock

Top 10 OA

1^st Molly Maguire/Shane Maguire (Subaru Legacy) 19m,

2^nd David McCrudden/Martin Tynan (Subaru Impreza) 23m,

3^rd Aaron McElroy/Declan Tynan (Subaru Impreza) 24m,

4^th Oisin Sherlock/Darragh Kelly (Subaru Impreza) 49m,

5^th Christopher McMahon/Damien Treanor (Subaru Legacy) 50m,

6^th Conor Boylan/Derek Mackarel (Subaru Impreza) 51m,

7^th Darren Lavery/Aaron McGorman (Subaru Impreza) 61m,

8^th Aidan Sweeney/Aidan McDevitt (Subaru Legacy) 67m,

9^th Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy (Subaru Impreza) 69m,

10^th Greg Shinnors/Andrew Mackarel (Subaru Impreza) 69m.

The Irish stage rally scene got underway last weekend with the Jeremy O’Connor Longford Arms Hotel Stages Rally 2025.

The event was organised and promoted by the Midland Motor Club, with all nine stages based around Longford town. The event was the opening round of five separate championships, namely, Triton Showers Motorsport Ireland National Rally Championship, Dacia Sandero Challenge Cup, Sligo Pallets Border Rally Championship, Hugo Loonam Midlands East Rally Championship and the
Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally Series (Rally4/R2/R2T).

Defending Triton Showers National Rally Championship champions, Josh Moffett/Keith Moriarty took their Citroën C3 Rally2 home in 3 rd place overall (OA). Cathan McCourt/Barry McNulty finished 7 th OA in their Hyundai i20 N Rally2. Sam Moffett/Shane Buckley finished right behind them in 8 th OA, in a similar i20 N Rally2.

Brendan Cumiskey/Martin Connolly finished in 11 th OA in
their VW Polo R5. Paul Barrett/Darragh Kelly finished in 16 th OA in their Citroën C3 Rally2. Johno Doogan/Paul Lennon finished 20 th OA and 1 st in class 14. Gary McPhillips/Paul Sheridan finished 28 th OA and 6 th in class 14. Michael Carbin/Dean O’Sullivan finished 32 nd OA and 7 th in class 14. Niall and Molly Maguire finished right behind them in 33 rd OA, in their stunning Subaru Impreza S12B WRC. They also finished 1 st in class 7.

Shane and Paul Maguire finished 37 th OA. James McCarville/Arthur Kierans finished 45 th OA and 4 th in class 13. Tommy Moffett/Domhnall Lennon finished 50 th OA and 4 th in class 2.
Mickey Conlon/Adam Langan finished 58 th OA and 1 st in class 12. Anthony Hand/David McCrudden finished 61 st OA and 2 nd in class 11R. Peter and Eoghán Farrell finished 118 th OA and 3 rd in class 10. Gary Cassidy/Damien Sheridan
retired after SS2. Killian McArdle navigating for Michael Cahill retired on the road section after SS1 with alternator failure. Oisín Sherlock navigating for Francis Kelly, retired after SS7 following the driver’s door window blowing off. It really was a pane in the glass.

Damien Connolly navigating for Oran England retired on the final stage of the rally.
The event was won by World Rally Championship contenders with M-Sport Ford World Rally Team, Josh McErlean/Eoin Tracey in a Ford Fiesta Rally2.
The 2024/25 Motorsport Ireland National Navigation Championship comes to an end this weekend with the Monaghan March Navigation Trial. Conor Mohan and Michael Carbin have organised an 85-mile event based out of Ballinode Community Centre. Tydavnet man Ryan Treanor and his County Longford driver Shane Dalton have provisionally won this season’s championship on the
previous round in Cavan.

This event will also be Round 4 of the Squealing Pig
Border Navigation Championship and Round 3 of the 2024/25 County
Monaghan Motor Club, Club Navigation and overall Club Championship.
Regulations and entry forms are currently available.
Oisín Sherlock