AGM
The Monaghan Motor Club Annual General Meeting will be held in the Hillgrove Hotel on Friday, 14th January 2011 at 8pm. During the meeting the election of officers for 2011 will take place. All 2010 members are eligible to vote.
Ballot papers can be downloaded from http://www.monaghanmotorclub.net or by contacting the Secretary Cora Maguire, 14 Cluain Ard, Dernagrew, Monaghan, 047-77942. There will be an open agenda and all members are asked to attend.
Despite the adverse conditions throughout the country, the annual Monaghan Motor Club Dinner Dance and Presentation of Awards went ahead as planned on Saturday night last with over 100 people attending. The main event of the evening was the presentation of the Traders Trophy to the overall club champion for 2010, Andy Mackarel. The competition for this prestigious award is based on total points scored for overall placings in all club events throughout the year. These include autotesting, navigation trials, autocrossing and stages rallying. Andy has now won this award on 9 occasions, which is a club record.
A special feature of the evening was the presentation of the Gerry MacNamara Memorial Award. This perpetual cup will be awarded annually to the person who has made the most outstanding contribution to the club. It was fitting then that the inaugural award should go to Ronnie Hawe. As the Club Chairman Paul Hughes put it: “To say that the award was well-merited by Ronnie is the ultimate understatement”. The club was honoured to have Gerry’s son Darra present to make the presentation.
Andy Mackarel and Liam Higgins were presented with the Gary Nesbitt Memorial Award as navigation champions. The winners of the remaining perpetual awards were as follows:
Keenan Stainless Steel Cup: (best club 2.4ltr) Gary McPhillips Mark Tierney
Squealing Pig Cup: (best club 2ltr) Mac McKenna John Loughran
JG Kelly Supplies: (best club 1.6ltr) Jim McKenna Thomas Treanor
CombiLift Cup: (best Club Junior) Darren McKenna Nicola McKenna
Ladies Award: Janice Mackarel
(Highest Placed Lady in Traders Classification)
Novice Navigator: Barry Garvey
(Best placed Navigator in Novice Class of Club Championship)
George Cannon Cup: Michael Tynan / Ciaran Tynan
(Best placed Monaghan Residents in Drumlin / not overall winners):
Premier Award: Arthur Kierans / Ashley McAdoo
(Highest placed club finishers in Drumlin):
Beginner:
5th Aaron Duffy Dessie Keenan
4th Eoghan Corr Peter Deery
3rd Brendan Ward Paul Treanor
2nd Christopher Fanning Sean Kelly
1st Martin McGuigan Brendan Treanor
Novice:
5th James McCarvile John Hetherington
4th Gerry Cassidy Fintan Clerkin
3rd Darren Babington Paul Sheridan
2nd Sean McKenna Garry Farrelly
1st Kevin Keenan Barry Garvey
Semi-Expert:
3rd N/A Hugh Kelly
2nd Declan Tynan Andrew Grennan
1st Michael Carbin Evin Hughes
Expert:
3rd Trevor Farrell Noel Hall
2nd Arthur Kierans Ashley McAdoo
1st Michael Tynan Ciaran Tynan
Navigation Season Starts in Ballybay
The new 2010/2011 navigation season gets underway on Saturday next 2nd October with a Navigation Trial being run by Monaghan Motor Club. This is a counting round of the Monaghan Motor Club Navigation Championship and Traders Trophy. Headquarters for the event is the Pearse Brothers GAA Centre in Ballybay, with local navigator Evin Hughes as Clerk of the Course. Marshals are asked to attend between 7.30 and 8pm. The first car departs Timepoint 1 at 9.01pm.
Wright Wins in Omagh
After finishing 4th Fiesta in his prize outing on the Tour of Flanders in Belgium recently, it was back to the gravel of the Hankook Northern Ireland Rally Championship and the McKelvey Bushwhacker Rally for Monaghan’s Stephen Wright. The Killyhevlin Hotel backed Fiesta Sport Trophy champion also moved back to his trusted Fiesta ST after a brief flirtation with an R2 on the Galway Summer Rally and the Belgian event. With sister Susanne in the navigator’s seat, the pair proceeded to dominate the Fiesta category on the Omagh event to finish with a comfortable victory by 1 min 48 secs.
Other Monaghan finishers were Kevin Flanagan, who navigated Donagh Kelly to 3rd overall and Michael Conlon/Matthew McKenna who were 19th overall.
Scotshouse driver Daniel McKenna, partnered as ever by Andrew Grennan made an unfamiliar trip to England last weekend to contest the infamous Trackrod Rally in Yorkshire, the final round of the British Rally Championship. Following a sterling drive, the pair finished a superb 4th overall on what was their first ever time to compete on a British Championship round.
Based in the seaside town of Scarborough on the North East coast, this gravel rally takes competitors through the best forest stages England has to offer. Daniel surely threw himself in at the deep end for this event, competing in a hired left hand drive Mitsubishi Evo 9 from Clarke Motorsport in Scotland but this was also his first time to compete on a gravel surface. To make matters even more difficult the first stage of the event on Friday night was the epic sixteen-mile Langdale stage ran in total darkness. The lads threw caution to the wind and emerged a creditable 9th overall, albeit with intercom problems.
At the front Waterford man Craig Breen in his S2000 Fiesta held the overnight lead from Gwyndaf Evans with Cork man Keith Cronin holding third. Keith was driving conservatively as a top six finish was all he needed to retain the British Rally Championship. Monaghan navigator Damian Connolly was in his regular seat with Dubliner Robert Barrable as they held 14th overall and more importantly were leading the Citroen C2R2 category.
Saturday brought a further seven stages through the Yorkshire forests as Daniel and Andrew set about closing the gap to the leaders. Indeed his stage 2 time was 6th fastest and it was evident that Daniel was finding his comfort zone as through each stage he became a little more confident and climbed up the leader board. Rally leader Craig Breen ended his chances of a win on stage 4 as a long right hand corner caught out the Waterford man when he slid wide and rolled his Fiesta. Indeed had it not been for the travelling Monaghan fans Craig would have been there for the day and eventually recovered to finish 9th overall. This paved the way for Welshman Gwyndaf Evans to take the rally lead, where he would remain to the finish. Barrable & Connolly were out on their own throughout the day in the Citroen Trophy category and a finish was all they needed to take the title.
Daniel continued to turn heads throughout the afternoon stages, as his times came within a few seconds of the experienced leaders. It was evident from spectating that Daniel had mastered the driving style of this car within six stages as he slid the Evo through junctions as if he were in his familiar Scanbitz Escort. His stage 4 time was 3rd fastest and stage 6 time was 2nd fastest, a true reflection of the pace he had found.
Cronin Crowned British Champion
Scotshouse driver Daniel McKenna, partnered as usual by Andrew Grennan from Annaghmakerrig continued their impressive recent form with overall victory on the Castle Hellfire Stages Rally based in Oldcastle on Sunday last. At the completion of the rally’s sixth and final stage, this exciting young Monaghan crew were 1 minute and 40 seconds clear of local crew Alan Sheridan/Gerard Conlon, both crews competing in Mk2 Escorts. 3rd place overall went to the Subaru Impreza driven by Stephen Cullen with navigator Seamus O’Grady.
Returning to the Scanbitz Escort after their outing in a Mitsubishi Lancer on the Ulster Rally, Daniel & Andrew set the pace from the word go, pulling 12 seconds out of the opposition on the opening stage. Trevor Mulligan/Paul Clarke and Michael Curran/Stephen Curran weren’t too far away but just couldn’t get on terms with the leaders. Daniel & Andrew dominated the event setting fastest time on each of the six stages to finish with a huge margin over their nearest rivals.
Mulligan/Clarke, who had held 2nd for most of the day retired late on promoting Alan Sheridan/Gerard Conlon into 2nd place. Group N winners, Stephen Cullen/Seamus O’Grady completed the top three finishers. Gordon Rogers/Philip McEntee just lost on 3rd place on a tie-break, but secured victory in class 13. James Cassidy/John Norris finished 5th overall and took 1st in class 12. Other Monaghan finishers were Andrew Lang/Niall Monaghan in 39th overall and 1st in class 9. Retirements included: Donal Crossan/Damien McCabe, Martin Tynan/Ciaran Tynan and Francie McKenna/Sean Craig.
County Monaghan Motor Club 