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Alister Fisher and Gordon Noble took a hard fought victory over Josh Moffett and Andy Hayes on last weekends Wastewater Solutions Circuit of Ireland Rally. The pair won the rally by 11.6 seconds following a blistering time on the final stage to overtake Moffett who had been leading up till then.
The eleven stage event had 2 separate stages over Friday and Saturday, with Orra Lodge and Lisles Hill each being ran three time on Friday and the same two ran in reverse on Saturday, now called Glendun and Cairncastle, with the Cairncastle stage being just over 4 mile longer than the Lisles hill version.
Desi Henry/Paddy Robinson were the early leaders after a stage win on the opening Orra Lodge stage, with Callum Devine/Shane Byrne finishing the stage second fastest. On SS2 Devine set the benchmark to trim Henry’s lead to just 0.2s. On SS3 Devine moved into the lead by 7.2s after another stage win and Henry only setting the third fastest time. Devine held the lead until SS5 when a puncture cost him around 20s to drop him to 2nd overall and put Henry back into the lead by 12.4s. On SS6 the final stage of the opening day, Devine set again set the fastest time to trim Henry’s lead to 10.2s. Devine was fortunate to get this far as the incident the caused the puncture on SS5 damaged another rim but fortunately didn’t deflate the tyre. After the opening days stages, it was Henry/Robinson in 1st place, Devine/Byrne in 2nd and Moffett/Hayes in 3rd with just 16.4s separating the top 3. Fisher/Noble were down in 4th place, 35s off the lead.
On day two, Devine was plagued with power issues in his VW Polo coming out of junctions caused by a problematic sensor. Moffett set the fastest time on the opener to over take Devine and go into 2nd overall. Henry still maintained the lead despite only setting the third fastest stage time. On SS8 Fisher got his first stage win of the weekend setting a blistering time some 5.3s quicker than second fastest Henry. Moffett set the third fastest time to extend his advantage over Devine. There was drama on SS9 as rally leader Henry suffered some engine problems and stalled the car at a hairpin. He dropped over 33s on the stage and fell to 3rd overall. Devine also stalled in the same hairpin as Desi and dropped 23s on the stage. Desi’s problems promoted Moffett into 1st. Fisher again set the fastest stage time by 6s to go from 4th to 2nd and just 6.8s off the lead. On the penultimate stage Desi Henri retired due to his engine issue and Callum struggled with more car troubles. Alister again was the fastest man on the stage to leave just 0.2s between himself and Josh for the rally win, with just the 14.1 miles of the Cairncastle left to go. On the Cairncastle stage Fisher scored his fourth stage win in a row to win the rally by 11.6s to end Josh’s hopes of a fifth rally win from five starts in 2022. Devine finished the rally in 3rd overall.
There was an extremely controversial end to the rally, as Josh originally had just over a 5s lead going into the last stage but the organisers decided to remove the stage bogey times for the event, as both Josh and Alister had beat the bogey time on the previous pass of the Cairncastle stage. If the bogey times had of stood, Josh would have been crowned winner as both himself and Alister would go on to beat the SS11 bogey, which would have resulted in them receiving the same stage time, thus making Josh winner.
In the National Rally, Daniel McKenna/Andrew Grennan finished winners. They led the national rally from SS1 all they way to the finish in their MkII Escort. The national win is even more impressive when you take into account that 2nd to 5th place were all in four wheel drive R5 cars. In in the overall rally, Daniel and Andrew finished a superb 5th overall, the only two wheel drive in the top. twelve. Daniel has an incar video of SS11 Cairncastle posted on Youtube and its well worth a watch.
Arthur Kierans guided Alan Carmichael to 8th overall and 2nd class N10, Calum Maguire navigated Johnnie Mulholland to 18th overall and 2nd class RC4. Oisín Sherlock navigated Philip Greenlee to 43rd overall. Their rally was almost over before it began as the propshaft broke just before the Arrival Control of SS1. They got a new part and returned for SS3 onwards.
Brendan Cumiskey and Martin Connolly retired on day one with a sensor problem on their car. James O’Reilly navigating for Declan Boyle also retired on day two with mechanical trouble.
Jonny Treanor
Monaghan Motor Club are saddened to hear of the tragic passing of Jonny Treanor. He had an incredible driving talent with success in various motorsport categories. Such was his driving ability, he was nominated for the Billy Coleman Award in 2017. Our thoughts go out to all his friends and family at this difficult time.
Ronnie Hawe Monaghan Stages Rally
The Four Seasons Hotel Ronnie Hawe Monaghan Stages Rally takes place this weekend. The event has attracted a bumper entry of 150 cars plus over 30 reserves in what continues to be a very popular event. Josh Moffett leads the pack off, seeded number one in his Hyundai R5, second seed is his brother Sam making a return to the WRC Fiesta after doing the last few events in a Toyota Starlet. The top 10 seeds are
1 Josh Moffett/Jason Mckenna, Hyundai i20 R5.
2 Sam Moffett/ Keith Moriatry, Ford Fiesta WRC.
3 Darren Gass/Noel O’Sullivan, Citroen DS3 Rally2.
4 Declan Boyle/James O’Reilly, VW Polo GTI R5.
5 Stephen Wright/Damien Connolly, Ford Fiesta R5.
6 Niall Maguire/Conor Foley, Ford Fiesta R5.
7 Seamus Leonard/John McCaffrey, Ford Fiesta.
8 Tim McNulty/Paul Kiely, Ford Fiesta.
9 Joseph McGonigle/Ciaran Geaney, Ford Fiesta R5.
10 Paul Barrett/Kevin Reilly, Ford Fiesta R5.

PRO: Oisín Sherlock oisinsherlock97@gmail.com

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