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There was a good attendance at the Annual General Meeting of Co. Monaghan Motor Club which was held in the Four Seasons Hotel on Friday 20th January 2017. Reports were presented by the Secretary Roisin Meenagh detailing club activities in 2016 and by Treasurer Cathal MacArtain, who presented a comprehensive report on the club’s finances.

The Chairman Paul Hughes, in a wide ranging address, thanked all who had helped and supported the club and its activities throughout 2016. It had been a special year as the club celebrated the 60th anniversary of its formation. Ronnie Hawe and Malcolm Totten received special mention for their work in organising the 60th Gala Dinner and display of memorabilia. The Chairman thanked the Hillgrove Hotel as main sponsor of the stages rally, all local sponsors, those who provided venues for events, as well as the residents and landowners along the routes of the events. He welcomed the Four Seasons Hotel on board as the main sponsor of the Monaghan Stages Rally for 2017.

It was another successful year for club members at both International and National level. The highlights were Josh Moffett winning the Billy Coleman Award as the Best Young Rally Driver of 2016 and Seamus Connolly/Gary McCrudden winning the Sligo Pallets Border Rally Championship. Other notable successes were Shane Maguire and Mac Kierans, winners of the West Coast Rally Championship, Ciaran McPhillips, winning navigator in the South East Stages Championship and winner of the 2 wheel drive category with Mickey Conlon in the National Forestry Championship. The Navigation championships were dominated by Pakie Duffy and Evin Hughes, who won the National and Border series.

The Chairman paid tribute to the work of outgoing Club Secretary Roisin Meenagh and outgoing Event Secretary Gary Hall. There was an urgent need for new volunteers to take up these and other roles within the club and he appealed to all club members to consider how each could contribute to sharing the workload.

In conclusion, the Chairman confirmed that he would not be going forward for re-election to the role and announced that he was supporting the nomination of the current Vice-Chairman Conor Maguire as Chairman for 2017. There being no other nominations, Conor Maguire was duly elected. The new chairman then thanked Paul for his long-serving contribution to the club and expressed the wish that this would continue.

The election of officers for 2017 resulted as follows:
Chairman: Conor Maguire, Vice-Chairman: TBA, Club Secretary: Paul Hughes, Event Secretary: TBA, Treasurer: Cathal MacArtain, Ast, Treasuer: Brendan Flynn, PRO: Evin Hughes, Registrar: Ronnie Hawe.
Committee: Kerry Stevenson, Thomas Treanor, Eoghan Corr, Shane Maguire, Michael Sheridan, Garry Farrelly, Ciaran Tynan, Fintan Keenan, Damien Hagan, Fintan Clerkin and James McCarville.

National Rally Championship Launch

The 2017 Triton National Rally Championship was launched at the Glen Royal Hotel in Maynooth last Saturday. The championship will again consist of eight events starting in Nenagh in February and ending in Bantry in October visiting all four provinces along the way. Our own Monaghan Stages Rally will be the third round of the series.

Defending champions Roy White & James O’Brien announced their intention to defend the title. He will be amongst four other former champions likely to contest the series. The others being Declan Boyle, Donagh Kelly, Peader Hurson & three time champion Niall Maguire. The championship gets under way with Birr Motor Club’s Nenagh based event on Sunday February 26th.

The rounds, venues and dates of the 2017 Triton Showers National Rally Championship are as follows:

1. Nenagh Stages Rally February 26
2. Midland Stages Rally March 26
3. Monaghan Stages Rally April 23
4. Circuit of Munster Rally June 4
5. Raven’s Rock Rally June 25
6. Sligo Stages Rally July 9
7. Galway Summer Rally August 27
8. Fastnet Rally, Bantry October 29

​The Navigation Trial scheduled for 7th January has been postponed on the advice of Motorsport Ireland. It is hoped to agree an alternative date for this event as soon as possible”.  

 

Died Monday 26th December at his residence. Reposing at his residence until removal 10.30am Thursday. Funeral Mass at 11.00am, St. Patrick’s Church, Ballybay.

Eamonn was a member of Monaghan Motor Club. He started out in Karting and later competed in Night Navigations, Quarries and Stages Rallies achieving multiple class successes. He will be sadly missed by the Club and wider Motorsport community.

Ballybay’s Evin Hughes guided local man Pakie Duffy to overall victory on last weekend’s Midland Navigation Trial. The event was a counting round of the National & Border Navigation Championships. COC Robert Howard organised a 70 mile route through some classic navigation country based out of the town of Drumlish. Duffy/Hughes took a clear win with championship rivals Derek Mackarel/Muireann Hayes in 2^nd and Richard Cassidy/Paul Phelan taking 3^rd.

There was drama even before the event began as Richard Cassidy’s Vectra broke a diff coming off the trailer, seemingly ending their event before it even began. A frantic call to the Mackarel family followed and a car was located but it was back in Stonebridge! Richard & Janice Mackarel met in Cavan and switched cars. Richard made it back just in time for the start.

 

After a fairly straight-forward start, the event tightened up considerably between TP7 to TP11 which included two Plot & Bash timepoints. Pakie Duffy/Evin Hughes and Shane Dalton/Nigel McCloughrey were both on clean sheets with Dermot Whelton/Mark McCarthy & Michael Tynan/Ciaran Tynan both just one penalty adrift. A jumbled tulip diagram used for TP13 caught out some crews, but everyone found the ‘snake herringbone’ tulip for TP16 and TP17 difficult to decipher.

 

Duffy/Hughes pulled clear on this section dropping just 1 penalty into TP18. Derek Mackarel/Muireann Hayes were the only other crew to correctly complete this section dropping 11 penalties. Richard Cassidy/Paul Phelan, showing no ill effects from their late car change, also successfully negotiated the tulip but went over maximum lateness at TP18. Despite this, they claimed 3^rd overall.

 

A long Speed Regulation Section brought crews back to Drumlish with no other changes to the leaderboard. So it was Duffy/Hughes who picked up their first win of the season with Mackarel/Hayes in 2^nd to maintain their lead in the National & Border Championships. Cassidy/Phelan completed the podium in 3^rd place with Dalton/McCloughrey and Tynan/Tynan 4^th and 5^th respectively.

 

Mac Kierans/Conor Boylan (55 pens) won the Semi-Expert class from Jack McKenna/Andrew Wedlock (100 pens) and Peter Farrell/Shane Farrell (125 pens). Local men Darren Quinn/Seamus McTigue (53 pens) won the Novice class from Michael Carbin/Conor Mohan (63 pens) & Kevin McCormick/David McCrudden (74 pens). In the Beginner’s class, Paddy Callaghan/Sean Cahill Jnr (129 pens) won from Ballybay men Aaron Dixon/Dylan Lennon (133 pens) with Mark McDermott/Patrick Brides (154 pens) third.

 

Midland Navigation Trial Top 12:

1 Pakie Duffy/Evin Hughes (Subaru Impreza) 1 mark, 2 Derek Mackarel/Muireann Hayes (Subaru Impreza) 15m, 3 Richard Cassidy/Paul Phelan (Subaru Impreza) 39m, 4 Shane Dalton/Nigel McCloughry (Subaru Impreza) 44m, 5 Mickey Tynan/Ciaran Tynan (Subaru Impreza) 45m, 6 Ray O’Neill/Stephen O’Neill (Subaru Impreza) 52m, 7 Darren Quinn/Seamus McTigue (Subaru Legacy) 53m, 8 Mac Kierans/Conor Boylan (Subaru Impreza) 55m, 9 Mickey Carbin/Conor Mohan (Subaru Impreza) 63m, 10 Dermot Whelton/Mark McCarthy (Subaru Impreza) 64m, 11 Kevin McCormack/David McCrudden (Subaru Impreza) 74m, 12 Martin Tynan/Fintan Clerkin (Subaru Impreza) 76m.

 

 

Killarney Historic Rally

 

Dessie Keenan & James McCarville were in action at last weekend’s Killarney Historic Stages Rally. Dessie, who is a former winner of the event, piloted James’ Escort through some classic stages including Moll’s Gap and Gortnagane. The pair finished 7^th overall in the Modified Section of the event and 2^nd in class. Ballinode’s Vincent & JP McAree came home 32^nd overall and 10^th in class. Vincent’s father, Brendan & John Henderson retired their Porsche on stage six. Raymond Conlon/James O’Reilly retired their Corolla on the opening stage.

 

The Historic Rally was won by Ryan Barrett/Paul McCann while the Modified Rally was won by Robert Duggan/Ger Conway.

 

Annual General Meeting

 

All club members are asked to take note that the Annual General Meeting of Co. Monaghan Motor Club will take place on Friday 20^th January 2017. Check the club website www.monaghanmotorclub.net and club Facebook page.   

 

Monaghan Motor Club hosted its annual awards presentation on Saturday night last 26^th November in the Hillgrove Hotel, with Sean McCaffrey as MC. Following dinner, Club Chairman Paul Hughes summarised the achievements of club members in competition at International, National and local level throughout 2016.

 

Josh Moffett had a very successful year culminating in his being nominated for the Billy Coleman Award for the third consecutive time. His name is included in the final shortlist of 3, from which the winner will be picked. Josh took overall victory in the Cork 20 International, Wyedean Rally in Wales, Limerick Forestry as well as the Monaghan Stages Rally. His brother Sam was victorious in the Cavan Stages, Carrick-on-Suir Forestry, Lakelands and Omagh Spring rallies. Stephen Wright was also a main contender for the Irish Tarmac Championship.

 

Seamus Connolly and Gary McCrudden had their most successful year to date, winning the Sligo Pallets Border Rally Championship as well as taking a class win in the Triton Showers National Stages Championship, in which Niall Maguire and Enda Sherry were 3^rd overall.

 

Shane Maguire and Mac Kierans won the West Coast Rally championship, while Ciaran McPhillips was the winning navigator in the South East Stages championship, where his driver Mickey Conlon was the runner-up. Mickey and Ciaran also won the two wheel drive category in the Irish Forestry championship.

 

Monaghan club members continued to dominate the Navigation Trial scene, with Evin Hughes, driven by Pakie Duffy winning both the National and Border Navigation championships.

 

On the local club scene, Derek Mackarel won the driver category in the Gary Nesbitt Memorial Navigation championship, with Fintan Clerkin the winning navigator. Conor Boylan won the Novice Navigator Award, while Pamela McMahon was a runaway winner of the Ladies Award.

 

The premier award on the night, the Traders Trophy, was presented to Clones driver Martin Tynan as overall Club Champion. This is Martin’s first Traders victory and it came after many years of trying. Even this year the win looked unlikely, until the results of the October Navigation Trial changed the points table completely. In the end, Martin proved to be a worthy and popular champion.    

 

There was a special presentation to Cora Maguire to mark her retirement form the club committee after 18 years. During that time, Cora had served both as Club Secretary and Event Secretary. Her contribution to the club has been phenomenal and she is wished every happiness for the future.

 

As part of its charity programme, the club presented a cheque for €1500 to Michael Kissane representing the Monaghan Branch of the Red Cross to assist with the provision of a second ambulance for the area.

 

Forestry Championship Prizegiving

 

The 2016 Valvoline Irish Forestry Championship Prizegiving took place last weekend at the Bridge House Hotel, Tullamore. Michael Carbin received his award for 2^nd driver in class 20 with his navigator Darragh Kelly taking 3^rd navigator in the same class. Michael Conlon was 3^rd in class 13 with navigator Ciaran McPhillips 2^nd in class 13. Michaela McGinn took 3rd navigator in class 13.

 

Carbery Navigation Trial

A number of Monaghan crews made the trip to Leap, West Cork for the second round of the Munster Night Navigation Championship. The 80 mile event proved to be a very challenging event with multiple sections on unmapped roads and 60 timepoints. Pakie Duffy/Evin Hughes finished up 4^th overall after a trying event, with Derek Mackarel and Muireann Hayes in 5th. Emmet McCooey/Christopher McMahon put in a brilliant performance to take 7^th overall and 1^st in the Beginner’s class by a massive margin. Caolan & Ryan Treanor finished 3^rd in the same class. Mac Kieans/Conor Boylan survived a broken ball-joint to take 3^rd in the Semi-Expert class.