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Conor Mohan began his Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC) campaign in Sweden last weekend. Conor along with his Co. Donegal driver, Eamonn Kelly have entered the 2025 JWRC, a championship that began in Umeå (Sweden) and finishes five rounds later with the Central European Rally in October.

Their Swedish event began with a 3.44km shakedown stage on Thursday, where the pair used their previous experience on snow and ice, to set the 2^nd fastest stage time, just 1.6s in arrears of the fastest time. The competitive aspect of the event began that night with the opening Special Stage (SS), SS1, Umeå Sprint 1. This 5.16km stage finished at the famous Red Barn Arena. This Red Barn Arena would be used a further three times over the event as all of SS1,8,15 and 18 would finish on the Arena. On the opening stage, Eamonn and Conor finished third fastest, just 1.8s down on fastest and 0.2s down on second fastest. On SS2, Bygdsiljum 1, they finished fifth fastest, dropping them two places to 5^th overall with Eamonn commenting that he was just far too cautious. On SS3 Andersvattnet 1, they finished ninth fastest which dropped them to 6^th overall. On SS4, Bäck 1, just before midday service, they finished 6^th fastest but were considerably faster than those coming behind.

With the car checked over in service it was a repeated pass of each of the four earlier stages. On SS5 Bygdsiljum 2, they finished the 28.27km fifth fastest, this result was enough to move the up one place overall to 4^th. On SS6 Andersvattnet 2, they finished fourth fastest, just 0.2s down on third. On SS7, Bäck 2, they finished in sixth, but still held onto 4^th overall despite a spin which forced them to reverse. SS8 was a repeated run over the Umeå Sprint, and here Eamonn and Conor finished second fastest, less than half a second slower than fastest. The performance on this special stage was enough to promote them into 3rd position overall during the overnight halt. The 15.65km of SS9 Vännäs 1, began Saturdays rallying and Eamonn and Conor finished the stage in fifth fastest after having another spin which cost them a handful of seconds. On SS10 Sarjöliden 1, they set yet another second fastest stage time. Another second fastest stage time was the result of SS11 Kolksele 1. This second fastest stage time resulted in them moving into 2^nd place overall at midday service. The afternoon stages were a repeated pass of the earlier stages, plus another run over the Umeå Sprint special stage. By the end of the days final special stage, SS15 Umeå Sprint 3, Conor and Eamon had dropped back to 3^rd place overall after they were unable to keep the hard charging local guy, Mille Johansson behind them.

Just three special stages were on the cards on Sunday, beginning with SS16 Västervik 1. On SS16, Conor and Eamonn again finished the stage second fastest. A fourth and seventh fastest stage time on the final two stages were enough for Eamonn and Conor to come away from the opening round of the 2025 JWRC with a 3^rd place finish and a healthy number of points on the board heading into Portugal for Round 2 in May. Interestingly, during a long road section between two stages, Conor, quipped to Eamonn, “Do you know ‘icy’ is the easiest English word to spell?”. After taking a moment to study it, Eamonn, replied, “Yes, I See Why”.

The Motorsport Ireland National Navigation Championship

continues this weekend, with Co. Cavan Motor Club’s Navigation Trial.

Sean McConnell and Anthony McDonald have organised an 85-mile event based out of MacSeains Pub and Golf in Cornafean. The first competing crew are away at 21:01 Interestingly the top three overall currently all have at least one County Monaghan Motor Club member. Current leaders are Ryan Treanor (Shane Dalton). Gregory Shinnors/Andrew Mackarel are four points behind in 2^nd and two points further back are Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy.

Oisín Sherlock

                          

Ryan Treanor and his County Longford driver, Shane Dalton extended their National Navigation Championship lead with a 4^th place finish on last weekend’s 100 Isles Navigation Trial. The event was hosted by the Skibbereen and District Car Club. Clerk of the Course for this latest championship round was Colm Feen, who is also a County Monaghan Motor Club member.

The event was an extremely tight affair as the top three overall finished the 85-mile event on identical penalties (marks). Eash of, Denis O’Donovan/Bones O’Connor, Patrick Corcoran/Patsy McDonagh, Patrick O’Sullivan/Owen Murphy finished having acquired a total of 5 marks. O’Donovan/O’Connor took the tiebreak victory for getting the furthest into the event before picking up a mark. Treanor/Dalton finished just a single mark in arrears and took 3^rd in the Expert class. Fellow Monaghan Motor Club members Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy finished right behind them in 5^th place, having picked up 8 marks.

1000 Shakes Navigation Trial COC’s, Greg Shinnors/Andrew Mackarel finished 8^th overall on 24m. Gretchen and Martin Swinburne, just home from the Caribbean on Wednesday, finished just behind them in 9^th overall. Ray and Stephen O’Neill finished 11^th overall.

The National Navigation Championship resumes with Cavan Motor Club’s Navigation on Saturday night the 22^nd of February. Anthony McDonald and Sean McConnell have organised a tough 85-mile event based out of MacSeains Pub and Golf in Cornafean. Regulations and Entry are available now.

Longford Stages Rally

The Launch of The Jeremy O’Connor Longford Arms Hotel Stages Rally 2025, took place on Sunday last at the Longford Arms Hotel. The Rally takes place on Sunday the 2^nd of March. The event will be opening round of each of the, Triton Showers National Rally Championship, Sligo Pallets Border Rally Championship, Dacia Sandero Challenge Cup, Hugo Looman Midlands East Rally Championship and the Motorsport Ireland Junior Rally Series. The Sligo Pallets Border Rally Championship was also launched on the day.

JWRC

Conor Mohan has flown to Sweden recently in preparation for this weeks Rally Sweden. The event begins this coming Thursday and will be the opening round of the 2025 Junior World Rally Championship. Conor is once again competing in the JWRC with Eamonn Kelly.

Oisín Sherlock

Round five of the Motorsport Ireland National Navigation Championship took place on Saturday night last.

Greg Shinnors along with his driver, Andrew Mackarel were the organisers of this latest championship round. The headquarters for this event was Glenroe GAA Club in County Limerick. Shinnors/Mackarel organised a 120-mile route, a majority of which were in the Ballyhoura and surrounding mountains.

The event began just to the north west of the HQ, with the departure from checkpoint 1 (Tp1) in through the Fear Bréagach forest for to travel to Tp2 on the R517. The departure of Tp2 was turning right toward Kilfinnane, before turning left into the Ballyroe forest. Navigators had to be careful to avoid passing by Tp4 on the way to Tp3 which was located back on the R517. After departing Tp3, competitors had to re-enter the forest for to reach Tp4. Following Tp4, it was down for to enter the quarry in Keale mountain for to arrive at all of Via 1 (V1), Tp5 and V2. Despite three checkpoints taking place in the same quarry, Greg and the entire organising team had the quarry laid out so that it was relatively straight forward for to locate each checkpoint.

After leaving V2, it was over to Ballyorgan to reach Tp6. Travelling to Tp7 located on the R512 just south of Ardpatrick would be the last public roads, competitors would use for a long while. Following Tp7, the checkpoints became numbered in the two hundreds, so after Tp7 was Tp201 etc. Tp201 to Tp213 including V4 were all located deep in the main Ballyhoura mountain. (V3 was removed before the event began). Tp213 was located on the public road after exiting the forest in Ballintlea North. Tp301 was up next, located at the end of the road, and it was here that the events first Speed Regularity Section (SRS) began. The SRS was 8.4 miles long and finished at Tp302 beside the Coolfree forest northern most entrance.

Tp302 was where the nights first Supplementary Route Instruction was received for to locate Tp303. The route instruction received here was in the form of a snake shaped herringbone tulip diagram. Navigators first had to plot the location of where the tulip began, arrive there before they could begin locating the first of four missing checkpoints in a row. (Tp303, 304, 305, 306). Tp307 brought competitors back into the maze that was the main Ballyhoura mountain, as Tp308 and 309 were located beside Tp201 and Tp202 respectively. Tp310 was located beside the western exit of the forest so luckily for navigators, the location of it wasn’t muddled in around previous or future checkpoint locations. The halfway point in the event was marked by Control B (CB) at Ballyhay Cross Roads.

Following the midpoint Control competitors travelled up to the filling station on the N20 for refuelling and a chance for navigators to sus out their route back through the Ballyhoura mountain to reach the HQ in Glenroe GAA. The events second SRS began immediately after the fuel halt. Tp401 began the second half of the event, so it was Tp402 that signalled the end of the SRS and the imminent return to the gravel tracks of the Ballyhoura’s for everything between Tp402 and Tp419, a section that included three Via’s and four plot and bash checkpoints. Being out of the main Ballyhoura mountain did not signal the end of the forest gravel tracks however, as the departure of Tp419 brought the event into Coolfree mountain for to arrive at V8, and now the named Tp501, 502 and V9. After V9, the event travelled to the Garryarthur forest for Tp503, then onwards to two farms in Tulla for Tp504 and 505. Tp506 was located back where Tp6 had been and from here it was into the Ardnageeha Keale Mountain for Tp507 followed by a newly created track into the same quarry used earlier in the night for Tp508 and 509. A short road trip down the road brought crews to a farm at Smith’s Cross Roads for V10 and the penultimate C510.

The final Control now just lay 300m over the road in the Glenroe GAA Club carpark.

When results were totted up it was O’Regan/Butler who held a 14 penalty (mark) win over second placed Ken Carmody/James Fitzgerald. Carmody/Fitzgerald will rue a wrong approach penalty they received at Tp303, a penalty that gave them 15 marks.

Third place went to the current national championship leaders and clerks of the course for the Midland Navigation Trial, Ryan Treanor/Shane Dalton. In the classes, Adam Coffey/James Dunphy finished 3rd in the Beginner class, Gary Kelleher/Séamus McHugh finished 2nd and Susan Smyth/Brian Duggan finished 1st. Derek O’Donoghue/Tony O’Keeffe finished 1st in the Novice class. Stephen and Ray O’Neill finished 3rd in the Semi-Expert Class, with Ruaidhri Nash/Brian Oakes finishing 2nd and Eoin Longworth/Declan Burke finishing the class in 1st place. Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy finished 3rd in the Expert class, 2nd went to Treanor/Dalton and winning the Expert was Carmody/Fitzgerald.After the awards were presented, both Aaron and Greg spoke a length about how grateful they are for the plethora of marshal’s who appeared on the night for to man all the checkpoints during the event, most of which were in the wilderness of the Ballyhoura mountains and well off the beaten track.

Greg stressed how grateful he is for the assistance he received from his team and from Coillte in getting trees that had fallen in the recent storm removed from the forest tracks to allow cars to be able to pass by.

Regulations and Entry Forms are currently available for the next round of the National Navigation Championship, the Skibbereen and District Car Club, 100 Isles Navigation Trial.

The event is being organised by Colm Feen and Barry O’Sullivan and will be based out of the Tadgh MacCarthaigh GAA Hall in Aughaville on Saturday night February 8th.

Conor Mohan was competing in Finland over the weekend.

Conor and his driver, Eamonn Kelly were using the Hotelli IsoValkeinen SM-ralli Kuopio 250 v as a pre event test for the opening round of the 2025 Junior World Rally Championship, Rally Sweden, which takes place from the 13 to the 16th of February. The pair were using a Ford Fiesta Rally 3, similar to the one they’ll be using in the Swedish event. The event comprised of 8 stages, totalling 96.5kms of snow and ice. At the end of the event the pair finished 10th overall and 4th in class SM2. Oisín Sherlock

Evin Hughes and Pakie Duffy claimed the outright victory on last weekend’s January Navigation Trial hosted by Monaghan Motor Club. The event, organised by Sean and Caolain McCaffrey was based out of Latton O’Rahilly Gaa Club. Winners of the previous round, Conor Mohan/Michael Carbin were seeded one on the road, and began the event at 21:01. Checkpoint one (Tp1) was located at the end of the road that ran alongside Lough Avaghon. Tp2 was located in Tandragee and it was here that the first Supplementary route instructions were received for the route to Tp3 and Tp4. The first route instruction received was a trace diagram, where competitors have to draw the image received onto tracing paper and as quickly as possible match it to the map. The route to Tp3 involved, departing north and going past Hut Cross Autocross track and taking the next farm lane on the right. After traversing the lane, it was turn left and arriving the Tp3 at the end of the road. The other route instruction received was in the form of a double-sided route card. One side was from an event in 2022 and the other side was the current event. Both sides had the correct location of Tp4, but only the 2025 side had the correct approach and departure. A lot of competitors obviously travelled back in time as no less than eleven crews received a wrong approach or never arrived to it at all, and that doesn’t include the large amount of lateness penalties (marks) received for late arrival to the Checkpoint. It was a left departure at Tp3 and over to a manned stop sign at the crossroads. It was a left turn here and traveling over the road and turning back into the same farm lane as before, only turning right at the end on this occasion. Tp4 was located at the end of this, with a left (east) departure. A long road section began here as it was a six-mile journey to arrive at Tp5 at Dunmakenna. After leaving Tp5, it was over to the R190 and over to Tp6 at the end of a grey lane in Moylemuck. The dense fog made traveling very tough. Tp7 was located at the R190 at Killyliss. From here the event moved to the northern side of the main road. Tp8 located in Lisnalong and within walking distance of Tp7 had to be approached from the north, which meant traveling a very twisty road in Killyvaghan. The west departure from Tp8 lead to competitors having to travel the road in Killyvaghan once again for to reach Tp9 at the R193 in Clossagh Beg. It was a four-mile journey to Tp10 at the R183 in Edenaneane. The first Time Recovery Section of the night took place between Tp12 and 13 which was located beside the disused quarry in Drumgavny. The Speed Regularity Section began here. Competitors had to follow a strict 30mph average speed over the eight-mile route to Tp14 at Drumsaul. The secret speed check took place at 5.5 miles, meaning each crew should arrive at it in exactly eleven minutes. One mark is acquired for every 9s too fast or too slow. The events second supplementary route instruction was received at Tp15 in Drumgole. When I write ‘received’ I of course mean, competitors received a gentle reminder that they had already received the map coordinates for the missing Via 1 (V1) at Tp2. Any navigator who launched the previous supplementary route instruction onto the rear seat or had tramped it into the floor over the 43.5 miles travelled since it had been received, had to frantically search for it or make it legible after repeatedly using it for origami practice with their feet. From Tp15 it was over to Control B (CB) at the Holy Trinity Church in Dartry which had to be approached from the R188. The trick here was that V1 was located on the shortest route between Tp15 and CB. Any navigator that was fond of procrastinating would inadvertently pass by the Via en route to the Control. If they did this, they would have to skip (not stop for a signature) V1 to avoid receiving a double visit mark (30m). Eleven competitors received a double visit penalty here. Tp16 was located at the old school house in Edergole to avoid a double visit on the way to CB and to get the correct approach (south) competitors had to use a short-overgrown track opposite Edergole Cemetery to drop from the high road to the low road. From this Tp it was over to Tp17 on the R183 at Aghadrumkeen before a six-mile trip to Tp18 at Balladain Bridge. Tp19 at the road island in Agheralane was where the final Supplementary Route Instruction was received. This final instruction was in the form of a clock face tulip diagram and brought crews from Tp19 to V2 and Tp20. All three checkpoints were within a half mile meaning there was only one minute allowed to arrive a V2 and Tp20.  V2 was located in Keenan’s farm in Creeve and was approached via a loop of the farm and departed from via another loop to arrive at Tp20, back on the public road. From here it was over to V3 on the R162 at Carnaveagh before heading to Tp21 approached via a farm lane in Corwillin. The second and last Time Recovery Section took place between Tp22 and Tp23 at Drumfaldra. Aghnamullen five points had to be used three times in quick succession. The first time, it was straight through to Tp 24, then return and turn left for to arrive at Tp25 at the R190. After leaving here, it was back to the five points once more for to travel to Tp26 at the R162 back at Carnaveagh. On leaving Tp26, competitors had to travel to the Latton junction and turn left to approach Tp27 from the correct direction (east) as it was also located on the R262. The final Tp of the night (Tp28) was located back where Tp1 had been located, once here it was the short trip back to the GAA grounds.

 In the end Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy took a slender 1-mark victory over Conor Boylan/Derek Mackarel. Dereks father Andy and his navigator Greg Shinnors finished 3^rd. In the classes, Elijah and Abraham Dixon finished 3^rd in the Beginner class. Brian Harkin/Jack Brunton finished 2^nd and Jack McKenna/Francie McElvaney finished 1^st in the class.

Gavin O’Donnell/Garry Gallagher finished 3^rd in the Novice class, with Adam Jordan/Aaron Dixon taking 2^nd and Ben Mohan/Damien Hagan winning the class and finishing 10^th overall.

In the Semi-Expert class, Adam Langan/Paddy O’Donnell finished 3^rd, Ciaran Maguire/Mickie McNelis finished 2^nd and Gretchen Swinburne/Martin Swinburne finished 1^st.

 In the Expert Class, 3^rd went to Conor Mohan/Michael Carbin, 2^nd was Greg Shinnors/Andrew Mackarel and winning the class and finishing 2^nd overall was Conor Boylan/Derek Mackarel.

After the awards were presented, Sean and Caolain thanked all the landowners who allowed the event to use their property, all the residents along the route who allowed the event to pass by without issue. They also thanked the many people who appeared on the night to marshal, despite the very bad fog so that the event could take place, as without them the event would have been unable to begin. A special word of thanks went to the caterers who provided all the delicious food after the event so that nobody was going home hungry.

The County Monaghan Motor Club CLG, overall, Traders Championship continues this Saturday with ALMC’s Winter Endurance Tial. The event is based out of Luttrellstown Castle Golf Resort, Castleknock, Co. Dublin. Regulations and Entry are currently available.

Oisín Sherlock

Top 10 Overall

1^st Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy (Subaru Impreza) 7m,

2^nd Conor Boylan/Derek Mackarel (Subaru Impreza) 8m,

3^rd Greg Shinnors/Andrew Mackarel (Subaru Impreza) 11m,

4^th Conor Mohan/Michael Carbin (Subaru Legacy) 12m,

5^th Gretchen Swinburne/Martin Swinburne (Subaru Impreza) 24m,

6^th Ryan Treanor/Shane Dalton (Subaru Impreza) 27m,

7^th Patrick Corcoran/Patsy McDonagh (Subaru Impreza) 28m,

8^th Aaron McElroy/Declan Tynan (Subaru Impreza) 29m,

9^th Ciaran Maguire/Mickey McNelis (Subaru Impreza) 33m,

10^th Ben Mohan/Damien Hagan (Subaru Impreza 35m.