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Last weekend Irelands top rally drivers headed to Galway City for the first stop on the Irish Tarmac Rally Championship’s calendar, the Corrib Oil Galway International Rally.

Clontibret’s Josh Moffett with Wexford’s Andy Hayes on the notes took a hard-fought victory after two days and fifteen stages in the Hyundai i20 R5 over the VW GTI Polo R5 of Welsh driver Meirion Evans/Jonathan Jackson with Callum Devine/Brian Hoy finishing 3^rd.

The rally began early Saturday morning with nine stages based in the greater Loughrea region. Treacherous conditions due to strong winds and heavy rain left it difficult for drivers to keep their cars on the road, this was evident from the number of videos of overshoots, slides and offs circulating on social media.

On the opening stage Evans/Jackson set the pace with a time 2.2 seconds quicker than Moffett/Hayes. Moffett hit back on SS2, setting the fastest time to go into the lead by a slender 0.5 seconds. On the third stage Evans would set another fastest time to cut Moffett’s lead to the smallest of margins going into the first service.

On SS4 it was Cathan McCourt/Liam Moynihan’s turn for a stage win moving them up to 4^th overall, but in the battle for the lead, Moffett took 3 seconds out of Evans. It was on SS5 that Moffett really began to stretch his legs setting a blistering time in the torrential rain going almost a full 6 seconds quicker than Evans. SS6 saw Declan Boyle with Monaghan’s James O’Reilly on the notes take a stage win in the older WRC spec Fiesta, but more importantly Josh took another 1.2 seconds out of Evans to lead the event by 10.2 seconds at the second service.

An extremely tough stage 7 where the wind and rain picked up seen Moffett’s lead trimmed to 7.6 seconds after his car got sucked into a couple of drains, but luckily for him Evans ran wide on a corner and dropped “four or five” seconds struggling for traction on the grass. Moffett immediately hit back on stage 8 going to lead by 15.4 seconds with only stage 9 remaining on day one. On SS9 Evans could only manage to go 1.3 seconds quicker to leave Moffett/Hayes a lead of 14.1 seconds overnight. Devine/Hoy finished the day third, just 3.4 seconds behind Evans/Jackson.

Six stages lay ahead on Sunday with Brady’s Yard and the 20km The Black Road stages each being repeated three times. Moffett/Hayes began day two on a mission and set another fastest stage time on SS10 to push their lead out to almost 20 seconds. A too cautious approach on the stage for Evans resulted on Devine overtaking him and going into 2^nd place.  There was to be slight drama on SS11 where Moffett would struggle with power-steering problems after passing through sections of standing water. Evans would set a dominant stage time to leapfrog Devine and go into 2^nd, only 5.1s behind Moffett.

A determined Josh would set another fastest time on the second pass of Brady’s Yard to increase his lead to 10 seconds and over the last three stages, Josh and Andy held onto their lead and eventually took the win by 14.1s seconds.

Darragh Kelly, navigating for Paul Barrett finished 9^th OA and 6^th in class 7. Unfortunately, Eamonn Kelly navigated by Ballinode man Conor Mohan had a minor off early in the rally and damaged the radiator resulting in retirement. Declan Boyle navigated by James O’Reilly retired on day two with gearshift problems.

In the National Rally, Cavan men Gary Kiernan/Daren O’Brien ran out comfortable winners in the end over Jason Black/Karl Egan with Damien Toner/Denver Rafferty finishing 3^rd.

Kevin Eves had led the rally until SS5 where a high speed overshoot resulted in a damaged back axle and instant retirement. Black/Egan inherited the lead but it wasn’t to last long as a puncture on SS8 would drop them to 6^th. This promoted Daniel McKenna/Andrew Grennan into the lead, with Kiernan/O’Brien just 3.8s ahead. McKenna would hold the lead until SS13 where a high speed impact with a bank on an extremely wet square right caused extensive damage to the front left. With McKenna out, Kiernan/O’Brien were the new leaders with Black/Egan back up to 2^nd after setting some blistering stage times. With over a three minute lead, Kiernan/O’Brien were able to back off over the remaining stages to eventually win by two minutes thirteen seconds.

Ashling McArdle would navigate Des Lyons to 17th OA and 2nd in class 11F, while John McQuaid/Thomas Treanor finished 41^st OA and 11^th in class 14. Unfortunately, Trevor Burke navigating for Mervyn Deane retired after SS10 while 25^th OA while Shane Farrell navigating for Quintan Park also failed to make the finish with mechanical trouble.

The Junior Rally took place over the six Sunday stages and Emyvale man Jack McKenna with Conor Mohan on the notes…Yes, you read that right…took an impressive overall victory in the newly built Civic. Conor now joins an exclusive group of navigators who can say that they competed on the same event on the same weekend with two different drivers.

PRO: Oisín Sherlock     oisinsherlock97@gmail.com

Top 3 Results:

International

1^st Josh Moffett/Andy Hayes (Hyundai i20 R5) 1:46:40.8,

2^nd Meirion Evans/Jonathan Jackson (VW Polo GTI R5) 1:46:54.9,

3^rd Callum Devine/Brian Hoy (Ford Fiesta Rally2) 1:47:09.5.

National

1^st Gary Kiernan/Daren O’Brien (Ford Escort) 1:53:09.6,

2^nd Jason Black/Karl Egan (Toyota Starlet RWD) 1:55:23.3,

3^rd Damien Toner/Denver Rafferty (Ford Escort) 1:55:34.4.

Historic

1^st James Ford/Neil Shanks (Ford Escort) 2:01:59.2,

2^nd Duncan Williams/Declan Casey (Ford Escort) 2:05:27.4,

3^rd Maurice Meskell/Stephen Meskell (Ford Escort) 2:05:59.5.

Junior

1^st Jack McKenna/Conor Mohan (Honda Civic) 1:05:40.4,

2^nd Jason Farrell/Robert Duggan (Honda Civic) 1:07:01.4,

3^rd John Michael Kennelly/Eoin Corcoran (Honda Civic) 1:08:29.5.

Skibbereen and District Car Club hosted the 3^rd Round of the National Navigation Championship last weekend. The ‘100 Isles’ event which also doubled as the 2^nd Round of the Munster Navigation Championship was based out of Newcestown Community Hall. Colm Feen along with Iarla McCarthy organised an 80 mile event over territory that had not seen Navigations in a number of years.

Tydavnet man Ryan Treanor along with Longford’s Shane Dalton snatched the overall victory after a closely contested event in which a total of four crews finished on clean sheets. Ryan was the first Monaghan man to win the event since Michael Carbin and Evin Hughes won it in 2012.

The event began at 23:01 where 22 crews took to the lanes in the hope of victory. There was no easy start as competitors had to negotiate two farm lanes, an underpass, a stop sign and a Via before reaching TP2, all in the space of four minutes. From there it was immediately onto another private lane on the approach to TP3 where a difficult to see track behind a shed half way down the lane caused confusion as competitors came to an apparent dead end, and it was here that Derek Mackarel/Conor Boylan dropped a minute. Another Monaghan crew, Eoghan Corr/Shane Maguire would suffer worse as they would receive a Wrong Departure.

The first plot and bash of the night came at TP11 where competitors received grid references in worded format for TP12, TP13 and Via4. Navigators had to be extra careful on the route to TP12 as if crews overshot a road on the left by even the smallest margin they would be met with a Wrong Approach or worse, a Double Visit. The Stranooden pairing of James McCabe/Shane Farrell unfortunately missed TP12 and went directly to TP13 dropping them 20 penalties.

At the midpoint control only four crews were still on zero penalties, Cork’s Derek Butler/Denis O’Donovan, Monaghan’s Darragh Kelly/Oisín Sherlock, Michael Carbin/Conor Mohan and the Longford/Monaghan team of Dalton/Treanor.

The second half of the event was no easier as four more plot and bashes awaited comprising of a trace diagram and more grid references in worded format. Drama was to follow for Kelly/Sherlock as they would almost drop a minute at the very last timepoint as they found the lane momentarily blocked. Luckily a lengthy road section following this allowed them to make back lost time before arriving at the penultimate control.

With the same four crews still on clean sheets, tiebreakers were needed to declare the winners. With both Dalton/Treanor and Carbin/Mohan competing in the Semi-Expert class, this gave them the advantage over the Expert crews of Butler/O’Donovan and Kelly/Sherlock. However, another tie breaker was required to separate the two Semi-Experts and two Experts, this time on Engine cc’s. Dalton’s rare 1990cc engine took the win over Carbin’s slightly bigger 1996cc engine, while in the tiebreaker to separate the two Experts, Kelly’s 1994cc engine beat Butler’s 1995cc engine.

With tiebreakers completed, Dalton and Treanor were declared victorious, securing their first ever victory in their first ever outing together. A slightly shocked Ryan gave a speech at the end and thanked the COC Colm Feen and his team on running a fantastic event and thanked all the residents and landowners for allowing the event to take place. 2^nd Overall and 1^st Semi-Expert went to Carbin and Mohan while 3^rd Overall and 1^st Expert went to Kelly and Sherlock making it a fantastic Monaghan one two three.

Derek Mackarel/Conor Boylan finished 3^rd Expert while James McCabe/Shane Farrell finished 7^th. Eoghan Corr/Shane Maguire finished 2^nd Novice while Ray O’Neill/Ryan Farrell finished 4^th.

Top 10 Results:

1^st Shane Dalton/Ryan Treanor (Subaru Impreza) 0m,

2^nd Michael Carbin/Conor Mohan (Subaru Impreza) 0m,

3^rd Darragh Kelly/Oisín Sherlock (Subaru Impreza) 0m,

4^th Derek Butler/Denis O’Donovan (Subaru Impreza) 0m,

5^th Derek Mackarel/Conor Boylan (Subaru Impreza) 2m,

6^th James Fitzgerald/Ken Carmody (Subaru Impreza) 3m,

7^th Alan Shinnors/George Shinnors (Subaru Impreza) 4m,

8^th Patsy McDonagh/Patrick Corcoran (Mitsubishi Colt) 6m,

9^th Brian O’Mahony/Amy Gallwey (Subaru Impreza) 7m,

10^th Mark Phelan/Patrick O’Leary (Subaru Impreza) 13m.

(Report compiled by Pro Oisin Sherlock)

Monaghan Motor Club hosted the first Navigation Trial of the new year on Saturday night last. Garry Farrelly assisted by Brendan Treanor laid out the 75 mile route based out of Ardaghey Community Hall.

Michael Carbin & Conor Mohan were the only crew to negotiate the entire route penalty free and ran out overall winners ahead of Derek Mackarel and Conor Boylan. 3^rd place went to Patrick Corcoran and Oisín Sherlock. The 75 mile compact route took in the areas of Ardaghey, Castleshane, Tullycorbet, Braddocks and Clontibret with plenty of narrow roads and gravel lanes to keep competitors occupied.

Navigators had to be on the ball from the off as it was immediately into a double plot and bash section from TP1. Competitors had to follow a herringbone tulip diagram from Braddocks to Castleshane and into the first farm lane of the night at Corlust. Navigators had to have their thinking caps on as there was a difficult to see looped lane on the right hand side of a cattle shed and anyone missing it were immediately met with a wrong approach at TP2. Crews then collected a box tulip to find TP3 which brought them towards Aghnagap. Again, crews had to be switched on as the approach to the timepoint was across the street of a farm, and anyone who missed it would get a wrong approach or double visit, a trick that would catch out no less than 12 crews. After this, crews got to relax a bit as the event opened out as they negotiated timepoints 4 to Control B. At the half way mark beside Scotch Corner three crews were on 0 penalties, Carbin/Mohan, Mackarel/Boylan and Pakie Duffy/Evin Hughes.

The second half of the event was more condense as the event began to loop around Tullycorbet and Braddocks. The first sting in the tail came at the second set of plot and bash where Mackarel/Boylan dropped 2 minutes into TP13 and Duffy/Hughes dropping 7 minutes on a difficult trace diagram at TP14. From there it was through a tunnel under the N2 and towards the much loved lanes at Ballygreaney and Bryanlitter.

There was to be no easy finish to the event as 2 more plot and bashes awaited crews at TP22 and TP23. Again, a herringbone diagram was handed out and this brought competitors back to the farm at Corlust, this time though going left around the shed to TP22, TP23 was in the same location as TP3, however not using the farm yard this time. The difficulty of these last two plot and bashes was evident from the plethora of crews who either missed them completely or got wrong approaches and double visits.

So at the end of the night, it was Carbin and Mohan who took a deserved win finishing the entire event without dropping a single penalty. This was Conor’s first ever overall win in Navigation Trials, and if this performance continues, there will be many more to come.

In the classes, it was Mackarel/Boylan 1^st Expert on 2 pens, 2^nd Corcoran/Sherlock on 4 pens and Martin Tynan/Fintan Clerkin 3^rd on 12 pens.

Semi-Expert was won by David Acheson/Philip Fitzpatrick on 66 pens, 2^nd Gary Cassidy/Killian McArdle on 82 pens and 3^rd was Mickey Conlon/Andrew Wedlock on 99 pens.

Kieran McCarra/Aaron McElroy finished 1^st Novice on 22 pens, with Aidan Keenan/Sean Marron in 2^nd with 23 pens and Declan Tynan/Ben McIntyre 3^rd with 49 pens.

In the Beginner class, Ciaran Duffy/Pauric Duffy finished 1^st on 31 pens, Conor Maguire/Ciaran Maguire finished 2^nd on 62 pens and Darragh Kelly/Richard McElwaine finished 3^rd on 73 pens.

Garry thanked all the residents and the landowners along the route for their support and allowing the event to use their land. He also thanked the marshals who came along and stood out manning the timepoints.

The National Navigation Championship continues with the Skibbereen and District Car Clubs 100 Isles Navigation  Trial on Saturday the 29^th based out of Newcestown Community Hall. Regs will be available shortly.

Top 10 Results:

1^st Michael Carbin/Conor Mohan (Subaru Impreza) 0m,

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

3^rd Patrick Corcoran/Oisín Sherlock (Subaru Impreza) 4m,

4^th Martin Tynan/Fintan Clerkin (Subaru Impreza) 12m

5^th Bob Graham/Ryan Treanor (Toyota Starlet) 18m,

6^th Kieran McCarra/Aaron McElroy (Toyota Starlet) 22m,

7^th Aidan Keenan/Sean Marron (Subaru Impreza) 23m,

8^th Pakie Duffy/Evin Hughes (Subaru Impreza) 30m,

9^th Ciaran Duffy/Pauric Duffy (Subaru Impreza) 31m,

10^th James McCabe/Shane Farrell (Subaru Impreza) 39m.

Monaghan Motor Club hosted the first Navigation Trial since February 2020. Christopher McMahon and Emmet McCooey took on the responsibility of running the event and duly laid out a challenging 75 mile route in the North Monaghan area. It turned out to be the Drumlish duo of Colin Duffy & Sam Johnston who showed the locals the way to win on a total of 39 penalties.

38 crews made the trip to the Sliabh Beagh Hotel in Knockatallon including a strong entry of Cork crews as the event was the opening round of the National Navigation Championship. The opening sections were fairly straightforward with the main challenge being heavy fog at the top of Bragan Mountain. By TP8 crews moved through a plot & bash section in the Esh forest resulting in most crews dropping time. By CB, it was very close between a number of crews at the top, Semi-Experts Bob Graham/Ryan Treanor led on a tie from Derek Mackarel/Conor Boylan and Emmet Sherry/David McCrudden. More time was lost between TP13-TP15 which featured a tulip diagram as did a new lane into TP18 with many crews being caught for time. TP20 was also a new lane on tulip and by the last few timepoints in the Knockatallon forests, most crews were approaching their maximum lateness. Colin Duffy/Sam Johnston were 1 of only two crews to make TP27 and although they were over lateness by TP28, they had done enough to take the honours. Indeed, they were thankful after needing a tow out early on after slipping off the road in the fog.

Pakie Duffy/Evin Hughes finished 2^nd five penalties in arrears having also made it to TP27 to make it a 1-2 for the Duffy family. Derek Mackarel/Conor Boylan skipped TP27 to get TP28 and that got them 3^rd overall on 46 penalties. 4^th overall was Emmet Sherry/David McCrudden in their Starlet with Semi-Expert class winners Michael Carbin/Conor Mohan 5^th overall.

2^nd Semi-Experts were Bob Graham/Ryan Treanor with Francis McElvaney/Danny McKenna 3^rd. Novice class honours went to Damien & Keith Sheridan from Eoghan Corr/Shane Maguire and Aiden Keenan/Sean Marron. Beginners class was taken by Ballinode brothers Shane & Paul Maguire. Conor Maguire & son Ciaran Maguire took 2^nd with Damien Treanor/Jack McKenna in 3^rd.

Overall it was a very successful and well run event with plenty of new lanes and tricks to catch the crews. Christopher thanked all the residents and landowers along the route whose support is vital to the continuation of the sport. He also thanked all the marshals who stood out to man the timepoints. With the first event in the rear view mirror some crews are planning to head to Cork for Skibbereen Motor Club’s Carbery Navigation Trial while the next Monaghan event is scheduled for January 15^th.

The return to Irish Rallying continued last weekend with two events either side of the Border. On Saturday, the Tour of Sperrins Rally took place near Maghera while on Sunday, Wexford Motor Club held a six stage event.

Josh Moffett/Andy Hayes took overall victory on the Wexford Stages Rally piloting their Hyundai I20 R5. 3rd after the opening stage, they hit the front on stage 3 and never looked back. A series of fastest stage times saw them pull 29.6 seconds clear at the end of the event. Kaine Treanor guided Ed O’Callaghan to 8th overall and 3rd in class 14. Paul Kelly guided David Condell to 10th overall and 3rd in class 5. Seamus Connolly/Gary McCrudden were 24th overall and 2nd in class 11R. Michael Conlon/Martin Byrne finished down in 37th overall after losing time on stage 4.

On the Tour of Sperrins Rally, which was the final round of the Northern Ireland Rally Championship, Damien Connolly guided Peader Hurson to 4th overall in their Fiesta WRC. The pair had a steady run despite an overshoot and finished 54.5 seconds behind event winner Callum Devine. Former Ni Champion, Stephen Wright/Liam Moynihan finished 8th overall and Arthur Kierans/Conor Maguire brought their Escort home 27th overall.

The next event in Irish Rally Calender is the Kerry Winter Stages Rally on November 7th,while Monaghan are hosting their Navigation Trial on November 13th.