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Monaghan Motor Club on top in Border Navigation Championship!

Ballinodeman Conor Mohan along with Clones man Martin Tynan were crowned
Squealing Pig Monaghan Border Navigation Trial Champions for the 2023/24
season.

Although not a competing crew together, they both did enough to claim an extremely hard fought championship victory. In fact, a tiebreak was required to establish the drivers champion as both Martin Tynan and StoneBridge man Derek Mackarel were tied on 52 points after the five rounds.
Luckily for Martin, he had claimed the overall victory on the final round in Donegal which allowed him the championship on rule 9.2 which counted the number of overall wins in the current championship. Martin’s one win to Dereks zero.

Longford man Shane Dalton finished 3 rd overall, just a single point in arrears (51).

Things were also very tight on the navigators side as Conor Mohan finished on 55 points with both David McCrudden and Conor Boylan finishing on 52 points.

In the novice class, Gretchen Swinburne finished 4 th navigator with Shane and Eoghan Farrell finishing 3 rd . Ciaran McGorman finished 2 nd Driver and Martin Swinburne/Aaron McGorman finished as class
winners and therefore were awarded the Charlie Adams perpetual cup.

The cup is awarded to the winning Novice pair in memory of the late Charlie Adams.

In the Semi-Expert class Eoghan Corr and Molly Maguire finished 3 rd .
Class winners were Declan Tynan and Aaron McElroy.

Ryan Treanor finished 3 rd in the Expert class, Pakie Duffy/Evin Hughes finished off 2 nd and Andrew
Mackarel/Greg Shinnors finished 1 st in the class.

Championship sponsor Raymond Aughey congratulated all the winners and thanked everyone for
turning out for an excellent prizegiving. He also announced that The Squealing Pig will remain as Sponsor for next seasons championship. Also announced for this year’s award winners were new jackets.
First to get awards on the night were all the Clerk of the Course’s for the tremendous events they organised. Every event during the season ran as planned and every single control/checkpoint was manned by marshals, something that does not go unnoticed by competitors.
-Oisín Sherlock

There were a couple of Monaghan Motor Club members competing in the
Assess Ireland Rally of the Lakes last weekend.

The event which was based out of the Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney was the fourth round of the 2024 Samdec Irish Tarmac Rally Championship.

Arthur Kierans navigating for Brendan Cumiskey finished 23 rd OA and 1 st in class RC3.

Killian McArdle navigating for Joseph Kelly finished the two day event 29 th OA.

Border Navigation Prizegiving

The eagerly anticipated Squealing Pig Monaghan Border Navigation Trial
Championship prizegiving takes place this Friday night at 8:30pm.

The prizegiving is taking place in the venue of the main sponsor. Conor Mohan
finished first Navigator overall (OA) with David McCrudden finishing 2 nd and
Conor Boylan finishing 3 rd . In the driver’s section, Martin Tynan finished 1 st ,
Derek Mackarel finished 2 nd and Shane Dalton finished 3 rd . In the Expert class,
Greg Shinnors/Andy Mackarel finished 1 st with Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy
finishing 2 nd and Ryan Treanor/Colin Duffy finishing 3 rd . Aaron McElroy/Declan
Tynan finished 1 st in the Semi-Expert class with Ciaran Coyle/Niall McDaid
finishing 2 nd and Molly Maguire/Eoghan Corr taking 3 rd . In the Novice class
Aaron McGorman/Martin Swinburne took 1 st , Anthony McDonald/Ciaran
McGorman finished 2 nd . 3 rd went to the brother pairing of Eoghan and Shane
Farrell. 4 th went to Gretchen Swinburne/Sean McConnell. 5 th in class went to
Eoin Quinn/Keith Sheridan and 6 th in class went to Damien Sheridan/Patrick
Masterson.

Round 3 of the Northern Ireland Rally Championship took place on Saturday last with the Eakin Bros Brian James Maiden City Stages Rally.

The event was won by Desi Henry/Shane Byrne in a Citroën C3 Rally2.

A number of Monaghan Motor Club members were involved which included Ryan Farrell navigating Johnnie Mulholland to 18^th overall (OA) in their Fiesta Rally3.

Killian McArdle navigated Michael Cahill to 21^st OA in a Ford Escort.

Damien Connolly on the notes for Peadar Hurson failed to finish the event after they were forced to retire their VW Polo R5.

There was only one Monaghan entrant in the Mayo Motorsport Club’s Loose Surface Autocross on Sunday. Clones man Martin Tynan finished the day in 4^th OA in his Mitsubishi Evo VIII. 

 Josh Moffett and Keith Moriarty took overall victory in the Birr Stages Rally, round three of the Triton Showers National Rally Championship.

The pair held a 17.6s advantage over Sam Moffett/James O’Reilly after nine stages and 103 kilometres. Arthur Kierans navigated David Kelly to 3^rd OA in their VW Polo R5 making it a Monaghan Motor Club top three.

Darragh Kelly guided Paul Barrett to 7^th OA. Kaine Trainer guided Chris O’Callaghan to 11^th OA and 2^nd in class 14 while Michael Carbin/Dean O’Sullivan finished 13^th OA and 3^rd in class 14. Gareth Deazley/Oisín Joyce finished 24th OA and 1st in class 2. Tommy Moffett/Domhnall Lennon finished 26^th OA and 3^rd in class 2. Michael Conlon/James McEneaney finished 30^th OA and 2^nd in class 12. Anthony Hand/David McCrudden finished 36^th OA and 2^nd in class 11R, just 1.2s off 1^st in class. Kevin Reilly guided Colin Flanagan to 46^th OA and 2^nd in class 20 in their Mitsubishi Evo X. James McCarville/Conal McNulty finished their day off in 48^th OA and 8^th in class 13. Martin McPhillips/Peter Farrell finished just behind them in 49^th OA and 4^th in class 11R. Paul McPhillips guided Stephen Faughnan to 65^th OA and Cathal Sheridan/Coel Leonard finished 78^th OA and 1^st in class 10. Justin Smyth/Darren O’Brien unfortunately failed to finish after retiring on SS1. Trevor Burke navigating for Mervyn Deane also failed to finish after retiring after SS8. 

No luck for Kelly and Mohan in Croatia

Unfortunately, it was a weekend to forget for Ballinode man Conor Mohan as he and his Donegal driver Eamonn Kelly suffered recuring engine problems throughout Rally Croatia – an issue which eventually forced them into retirement. The event was a counting round of the Junior World Championship so a non-finish has put a big dent in their championship hopes. Stage 1 of the event turned out to be the only stage that went without hassle as they finished the stage in 6^th place. On SS2 their Ford Fiesta Rally3 suffered coil pack failure. Luckily, they carried a spare coil pack for the car which they managed to replace on the road section to SS3. On SS3 they suffered a puncture and for the rest of Friday’s stages their engine once again started acting up which forced them to retire for the first time on the day’s final stage. Their service team managed to repair the car in service and they rejoined the event under super rally rules. Amazingly, their engine gremlins returned on the very first stage of Saturday and this time it was terminal so they had to retire permanently as the engine was beyond repair. Understandably the two lads were bitterly disappointed at the outcome as they had put in so much effort getting set up of the event that they won last year. Their Junior World Championship charge will restart with Rally Italia Sardegna, which takes place between 30 May and 2 June.