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Mickey Conlon and Paul McPhillips finished 6th overall and 2nd two wheel drive at last weekend’s Willie Loughman Forest Rally. The pair battled it out over the six stage event against John Gordon/Ben Taggart for 2wd honours. Conlon/McPhillips did hold the lead from SS3 to SS5, despite losing time over the middle stage in each loop, struggling with a lack of grip, to go into the final stage with a 0.8 second advantage. However, a big push from Gordan/Taggart seen them emerge victorious by 5.2s.

The rally itself was won by Patrick O’Brien/Stephen O’Brien in their Skoda Fabia R5. Jordon Hone/Paul Hone finished 2nd in their Ford Fiesta R5 and in 3rd was Keith Power/Donal Balfe in another Fiesta R5.

Paul Kelly navigated David Condell to 10th OA and 3rd in class 14. Brendan Cumiskey/Martin Connolly finished 11th OA and 1st class 2. Conor Boylan navigating for Adam Semple in a G3 Escort finished 2nd in class 11R.

Derek Mackarel/Eamonn Creedon failed to make the finish, retiring on SS4 with a broken diff while sitting 4th OA and 1st in class 20. Steven Corey/Ella Ryan retired after SS1 while 4th in class 14. Tommy Moffett/Gary McCudden retired after SS2 in their Toyota Aygo.

Four Seasons Hotel Ronnie Hawe Monaghan Stages Rally

Sunday marked the launch of Monaghan Motor Club’s stages rally 2022. The launch also marked the rebranding of the event, The ‘Ronnie Hawe Monaghan Stages Rally’ Sponsored by the Four Seasons Hotel Monaghan. A large crowd turned out for the launch and Sean McCaffery interviewed drivers, Sam and Josh Moffett, Gary McPhillips, Dessie Keenan, Gary Cassidy, Jack McKenna and navigators Oisín Sherlock and Damien Connolly. Rev Charles McCollum spoke about the great work Ronnie carried out and the effort he put into the stages rally year in year out. Finally, the much anticipated raffle was held. Ciaran Tynan won the free entry to the rally, Conor Curley won the voucher towards an incar camera and Damien Reilly won the voucher towards pace notes. The rally takes place on Sunday 24^th April.

PRO: Oisín Sherlock oisinsherlock97@gmail.com

Once again Josh Moffett came out on top at last weekend’s Pat Horan Motors
Birr Stages Rally making it his fourth straight win from four starts this year. It
also marked his 3rd win in a row at the Birr event. Josh with Keith Moriarty on
the notes finished the six stage event with 33.7 seconds to spare over 2nd
place Declan Boyle/James O’Reilly. Darren Gass/Noel O’Sullivan finished in 3rd
place.
Josh was quickest out of the blocks on the opening stage, setting a time some
13.1s faster than Gass despite interference in the intercom. On SS2 Josh really
struggled with the intercom issue, but still managed to finish the stage second
fastest. Keith Cronin/Mikie Galvin making their debut in a VW Polo GTI R5 set
the fastest stage time to trim Moffett’s lead to 11.5s going into first service.
Gass struggled on this stage and dropped from 3rd to 5 th with Garry
Jennings/Rory Kennedy going into 3rd and Boyle/O’Reilly into 4th.
On the middle loop of stages Moffett extended his lead by just 0.9 of a second
to leave it still all to play for between himself and Cronin. Jennings maintained
his 3 rd place despite being out paced by Boyle during the middle loop.
There was late drama on the third loop as Cronin/Galvin stopped on the stage
with a broken drive shaft, a very disappointing end to what had been a
fantastic battle with Josh for the lead. Garry Jennings also failed to finish the
rally failing to leave service for the last loop. With those two retirements,
Boyle/O’Reilly moved into 2nd and Desi Henry/Paddy Robinson inherited 3 rd
just 1.9s up on Gass/O’Sullivan in 4th. On the final stage, SS6, Moffett backed
off a little bit to lessen the risk of any last minute woes. In the battle for third
place, Henry could not keep the hard charging Gass behind him and dropped to
4th. Gass set the joint fastest stage time with Boyle to claim the final podium
spot 3.1s ahead of Henry.
Stephen Wright/Darragh Kelly finished 5th overall and 2nd class 5. Michael
Carbin/Dean O’Sullivan finished 7th OA and first in class 20 in their Mitsubishi
Evo VIII. Niall Maguire/Conor Foley finished 10th and 3rd class 5. Thomas
Treanor navigated Marty Toner to 18th OA and 4th class 14. Dessie Keenan
making his long awaited return in his newly built MkII Escort finished 19th OA
and 5 class 14 navigated by Enda Sherry. David Moffett/Martin Connolly
finished 21st OA and 7th class 14. Arthur Kierans/Conor Maguire finished 34th
OA and 4 class 13 Gary McCrudden navigated Sam Johnston to 35th OA and

2nd class 11F. Mickey Conlon/Paul McPhillips won the drive of the day award
and finished 2nd class 12. Johno Doogan/ Ciaran Marron recovered to finish
88th OA.
Trevor Burke navigating for Mervyn Deane retired after SS1, Ashling McArdle
navigating for Des Lyons, retired after SS3 and Shane Farrell navigating for
Quintan Park crashed out on SS4 after losing the brakes due to a burst pipe
after a heavy landing over a jump. Jack Maguire/Keith McConnon retired after
SS4.
Squealing Pig Monaghan Border Navigation Championship
In the local Squealing Pig Monaghan Border Navigation Championship, it was
the uncle/nephew team of Michael and Ciaran Tynan who finished 1st in the
short three round championship. They won the championship thanks to two
overall wins on the final two rounds. Second in the championship were Martin
Tynan and Conor Boylan despite not competing together. Derek Mackarel
drove for Conor on the opening two events but missed the last round due to
other commitments. Derek along with National Championship winner Ryan
Treanor finished 3 rd overall.
In the class’s Darragh Kelly/Oisín Sherlock finished 1st Expert. Shane
Dalton/Christopher McMahon finished 1st Semi-Expert and Eoghan Corr/Shane
Maguire finished 1 st Novice.

Four Seasons Hotel Ronnie Hawe Monaghan Stages Rally
The Four Seasons Hotel Monaghan is the place to be on Sunday 10th April at
3pm for the launch of the Ronnie Hawe Monaghan Stages Rally which takes
place on the 24th. The Four Seasons Hotel once again proudly sponsor the
event. Come along on the 10 th for the launch to view and take pictures with
some of the cars that will be competing over the nine stage event. Don’t forget
the launch day raffle to be in with a chance of winning a free entry to the rally.
2nd place is a voucher for pace notes and 3rd place is a voucher toward an in-
car camera hire. Tickets cost €20 and are available on the Monaghan Motor
Club Facebook page or from any committee member. So come along to what
should be a fantastic evening. Admission free.

Last Saturday marked the final round of the National and Border Trial
Championships. Just like the previous round, Michael Tynan with nephew
Ciaran Tynan on the map emerged victorious after one of the most demanding
events in recent times. They negotiated the eighty mile event dropping only 19
minutes and finished well ahead of Martin Tynan/Fintan Clerkin in 2 nd place.
Andrew Mackarel made his long awaited return, filling in for his son Derek, to
steer Conor Boylan to 3 rd place overall.
Before the event began, all eyes were on the leader board of the National
Navigation Championship. Remarkably going into the last round, no less than
six crews had the chance of the overall win. The current leaders were both
Monaghan men. Despite not being team mates Darragh Kelly led the drivers
championship and Conor Mohan led the navigators championship when
dropped scores were taken into account. As nine o’clock grew nearer, nerves
began to creep into the championship contenders as they knew this was their
last chance to tip the overall honours in their favour.
The event organised by new Clerk of the Course Ben McIntyre ably assisted by
Andrew and Thomas Wedlock was based out of Tullyvin Community Centre.
From time point one it was into the first farm lane of the night opposite Kill
National School to receive the correct approach to Tp2. From there it was into
a new lane at Aghnaglogh and across a few bumpy fields to arrive at Tp3.
Unfortunately, Michael Carbin and Conor Mohan’s championship push came to
an abrupt end here, failing to make it to the Time Point.
The first real challenge of the event came at Tp5 in the famous grounds of the
wind turbines just north of Mountain Lodge. A very difficult to find overgrown
lane led up to the time point and this resulted in a total of fourteen cars
completely missing the lane and landing at Tp6 by mistake. The main
casualties here were three of the championship contenders. Mackarel/Boylan,
Derek Butler/Denis O’Donovan and James Fitzgerald/Ken Carmody all missed
the lane to put a big dent in their hopes. There was no let up as at Tp6 a
herringbone tulip plot and bash was handed out to bring competitors to Tp7,
Via1 and Tp8. The tulip was extremely difficult with a total of 54 junctions
appearing on it. The tulip brought crews up into the turbines beside the
Mountain Lodge reservoir. Navigators had to be clued in, as the quick

succession of junctions left it very easy to get wrong approaches and double
visits, as the tulip brought competitors back into the vicinity of TP7 when
bringing them to Via1. Ciaran Tynan was fortunate to get away with dropping
just eight minutes through this section as he accidently reset his tripmeter
which left him having to calculate the intermediate distances as the tulip read
in cumulative. Most of the expert crews did get through this section without
much drama apart from dropping time.
Darragh Kelly/Oisín Sherlock got through the three p&bs dropping only four
minutes to go into the lead of the event and go from seventh on the road to
second with only Fitzgerald/Carmody in front. Kelly/Sherlock would continue
to lead the event until TP13 at Cran, just outside Maudabawn where they
missed a left turn on a road goes and received a wrong approach.
Plot and bash was again handed out at Tp14, bringing crews yet again into
another farm. Anyone not paying close attention to the tulip diagram would be
met with a wrong approach by following the lane to the end. The correct route
being turning left off the lane, up a field, into the farm yard and keep right
around an old shed and down a cow lane. Ten crews were caught out here
with a wrong approach.
A newly reopened lane that hadn’t seen traffic in decades took competitors to
Tp16. Fitzgerald/Carmody’s night would go from bad to worse as they slid off
the lane and got stuck, resulting in them missing the following three time
points and the ITC as they got towed out and tried to regain lost time.
Kelly/Sherlock inherited being first car on the road, a position they would hold
until the relax section at Tp29.
A never before used lane at Rakane, just north of Kill was the location of Tp17
just before the midpoint control. At the midpoint Control, Tynan/Tynan were
out in front on 12 penalties, 2 nd was championship contenders Shane
Dalton/Ryan Treanor on 15 pens with Kelly/Sherlock 3 rd on 23 pens.
There was no let up in the second half as the lanes kept coming thick and fast.
Another lane never used before brought the navigation up into the turbines at
Lappanbane, where turning right led to Tp25 and left to Tp26. Tp25 was
particularly hard to find as the lane was unmapped and competitors had to
make sure to follow their tulip to not miss a hidden slot right to enter the lane
the time point was located on.

Tp30 would throw up a late sting in the tail as Kelly/Sherlock would receive a
wrong departure and double visit after heading out a dead end lane in
Wedlock Windows farmyard.
At Tp32 the last p&b was handed out. This time it was two grid references for
Tp33 and Tp34 that were located in a farm yard and a wind turbine lane at
Cornabeagh. These p&bs didn’t throw up much of a challenge for most of the
expert crews as they mainly dropped time because of the short distances,
getting caught in the dust of previous cars and stopping to get a stop sign
signature three times. With the last p&b section finished, the event headed
back through the lane and fields at Aghnaglogh to Tp36 before the final two
controls signalling the end of a fantastic event as well as the National and
Squealing Pig Border Navigation Championships.
With the event over and penalties added up it was Team Tynan once again
who secured the overall win. Tynan/Clerkin finished on 35 pens to secure 2 nd
place and Mackarel/Boylan finished 3 rd on 49 pens.
In the classes, Tynan/Clerkin finished 1 st Expert, Mackarel/Boylan finished 2 nd
and Kelly/Sherlock finished 3 rd on 74 pens.
Dalton/Treanor won the Semi-Expert class finishing on 73 pens, Damien
Treanor/Christopher McMahon secured 2 nd in class with 109 pens and 3 rd place
went to Eoghan Corr/Shane Maguire on 120 pens.
Kieran McCarra/Aaron McElroy won the Novice class despite an early puncture
and finished on 77 pens. In 2 nd were Sean McConnell/Anthony McDonald on
240 pens and in 3 rd was Cathal Sheridan/Ryan Farrell on 255 pens.
The Beginner class was once again won by Elijah Dixon/Marco Lennon,
finishing on 232 pens. In 2 nd place was Pat Shields/John Kelly on 244 pens and
in 3 rd place was Abraham Dixon/Luke Connolly, finishing on 555 pens.
*Amazingly, with Conor Boylan finishing 3 rd OA, Ryan Treanor finishing 4 th OA
and Denis O’Donovan finishing 10 th OA it left the three of them tied for 1st
place in the navigators championship. A tiebreaker was needed to decide the
winner and it sided with Ryan Treanor on the Semi-Expert beats Expert rule.
This was Ryan’s first National Championship win and he became the first
Monaghan navigator to win the championship since Evin Hughes back in
2016/17. 2 nd place went to reigning champion Denis O’Donovan as he had an
overall win at the Skibbereen Carbery event. Conor Boylan finished in 3 rd place

OA. Unfortunately, Conor Mohan had to settle for 4 th overall after his non
finish in Cavan. He finished the championship tied with Oisín Sherlock, but beat
Oisín on the Semi-Expert beats Expert rule also. Despite a very poor start to the
championship (four points from the opening two rounds) Oisín recovered to
finish 5 th OA, just two points behind the winner. Indeed, he could have
snatched the win on the last round if not for two navigational errors that
dropped him from 1st to 5 th on the Cavan event. County Monaghan was well
represented as four out of the top five all hail from the Farney county.
In the drivers Championship, Darragh Kelly finished 1 st OA with one point to
spare over Derek Butler. Darragh secured the OA win thanks to a 14 point haul
driving for Ryan Treanor in the Skibbereen Carbery event, before driving for
Oisín Sherlock for the remainder of the season. 3 rd place went to Shane Dalton,
Ryan Treanor’s driver from the 100 Isles event onwards. 4 th place went to
Michael Carbin. Carbin had been in 2 nd OA but dropped to 4 th after the non-
finish on the final round. 5 th went to Derek Mackarel as he had other
commitments and was unable to start the Cavan event. He would have finished
3 rd OA otherwise.
*National Navigation Trial Championship results remain provisional.
The Squealing Pig Border Navigation Trial Championship points will be updated
in the coming days.
PRO: Oisín Sherlock oisinsherlock97@gmail.com

Please note a Rally Safety Tracking System Webinar will take place this Thursday 31st March, at 8pm. The goal of this webinar is to provide an indepth presentation on the use of the Safety Tracking System for competitors on Irish rallies. The seminar will be delivered by Joe Corcoran and there will be a Q&A to cover any queries attendees may have. Due to account restrictions, please note the webinar will be limited to 500 attendees, however it will be recorded and uploaded to the Motorsport Ireland YouTube Channel.

Please find the link to the webinar here – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86827016160

Josh Moffett continued his winning streak at last weekend’s Clonakilty Park Hotel West Cork Rally, making it three wins from three starts in 2022. The Clontibret driver with Wexford’s Andy Hayes back in the co-driver’s seat finished the fourteen stage, two day event with 23.3 seconds to spare over the Welsh crew of Meirion Evans/Jonathan Jackson with the Armagh/Tyrone pair Alastair Fisher/Gordon Noble finishing 18.3s further back in 3^rd.

Moffett did not have it all his own way though, as he had a tremendous battle with Derry’s Callum Devine throughout day one. Devine led from SS1 to SS5 before a hard charging Josh briefly took the lead on SS6 by 1.8s. Callum immediately hit back and regained the lead on the following stage and went faster than Josh again on SS8 to hold an overnight advantage of 4.4s. Moffett/Hayes lay in 2^nd place with Evans/Jackson sitting in third, 21.8s down on Devine.

Cathan McCourt who was in 5^th overall rolled on the opening stage on Sunday ending what had been a great rally for him up until then. Back with the leaders, Devine once again went faster than Moffett but commented that he had went out on too soft of compound tyres and that they may compromise him on the following two stages that were considerably longer than the days opener. Devine’s fears would come through on SS10 where Moffett would go faster by 6.3s to regain the rally lead he last held on SS6. Once again Moffett would go faster than Devine on SS11 by 7.1s to hold an overall lead of 7.3s going into last service.

Devine was eager to get to service to put on some new tyres for a big push over the last three stages to try and regain the lead that he’d held for the majority of the event. Unfortunately, Callum wouldn’t get a chance to fight back as the gearbox on his Rally2 Fiesta cried enough on the road section to SS12. With Devine out, Moffett got to relax a bit as he had a comfortable lead over Evans/Jackson who inherited 2^nd place after Devine’s untimely exit. Over the last two stages, Moffett held onto his lead and even managed another fastest time on the final stage to finish the weekend in style.

Jonny Greer/Dai Roberts had been in third place going into the final stage, just 3s down on Evans/Jackson but unfortunately hit a bank and broke the exhaust which forced them into retirement. This error promoted Fisher/Noble into the podium places.

In the National section. James Stafford/Tom Scallon came out on top in their Darrian T90 GTR+, they finished with 46.2s to spare over 2^nd placed Robert Duggan/John Falvey. Daniel McKenna/Andrew Grennan snatched 3^rd place on the last stage after the diff in Gary Kiernan’s Ford Escort broke which ended his rally prematurely. Daniel was delighted getting to the end of the event after his crash on the last round in Galway and with the continued development of the car.  

Sam Moffett took the Toyota Starlet for another spin after his debut in it at Mayo Stages. He finished 16^th OA and 1^st Class 13. Conor Mohan navigated Eamonn Kelly to 17^th OA and 1^st in the RC4 Class. Amazingly they set the fastest time in their class on each of the rally’s fourteen stages. John McQuaid drove his Escort to 22^nd OA and 7^th Class 14. Gary McCrudden guided Hazel O’Callaghan to 56^th OA and 11^th in Class 13. Brendan McAree finished 12th OA and 4th in Class K in the Historic section in his Porsche 911.

Martin Connolly navigating for Brendan Cumiskey failed to make the finish, retiring after SS12 while sitting 8^th Class RC2. Gary Cassidy/Killian McArdle retired after SS2 with mechanical trouble. Kaine Treanor navigating for Chris O’Callaghan unfortunately crashed out on SS3. Mark Fox/Callum Maguire competing in the Junior rally also failed to make the finish, retiring on SS13 while sitting 5^th OA.

Open Meeting

Monaghan Motor Club are holding an open meeting this Friday at 8pm in the Four Seasons Hotel. All Welcome.

PRO: Oisín Sherlock    oisinsherlock97@gmail.com