Category: Uncategorized

The National Navigation Championship results were finalized last week.

The Co. Monaghan/Longford duo of Ryan Treanor/Shane Dalton were confirmed as the 2024/25 national navigation champions after scoring 102 points, with their ‘Best 6 + Bonus’ score.

 Their score was six points better off than the runners up, and multiple national navigation champions themselves, Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy. Reigning national navigation champions)Greg Shinnors/Andrew Mackarel finished 4^th and 3^rd respectively. Greg finished 4th navigator while Andrew finished 3^rd driver overall.

 That reminds me, I recently won the 2024/25 national weather forecasting championship. I beat the raining champion. Darren Lavery/Aaron McGorman finished 2^nd in the Beginner class.

Gretchen and Martin Swinburne had a resounding win in the Novice class, finishing 17 points better off than the crew in 2^nd place. Ciaran Maguire/Cathal McGlone, though not competing together as a team, finished 3^rd in the Semi-Expert class.

 Greg Shinnors finished 1^st Expert navigator, while Oisín Sherlock finished 3^rd in the class. The National Navigation Prizegiving will take place on Saturday the 17^th of May at 6pm in the Athlone Springs Hotel. Everyone welcome.

The Squealing Pig Border Navigation Championship, results were also classed as final last week. Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy, went one better than their national championship result, and secured 1^st overall. Aaron McElroy/Declan Tynan finished 2^nd and David McCrudden/Martin Tynan finished 3^rd overall, making it a Co. Monaghan Motor Club 1, 2, 3.  Greg Shinnors/Andrew Mackarel finished 1^st in the Expert class, Oisín Sherlock/Derek Mackarel finished 2^nd, and Conor Boylan/Shane Dalton finished 3^rd.

Ciaran Maguire/Mickey McNelis finished 1^st in the Semi-Expert class, and Michael Sheridan/Cathal McGlone finished 2^nd. Darren Lavery/Aaron McGorman finished 1^st in the Novice class and Adam Langan finished 2^nd Novice navigator. Martin Swinburne finished 3^rd Novice driver. Gretchen Swinburne finished 4^th Novice navigator. Jack McKenna finished 5^th Novice Navigator and Aaron Dixon finished 6^th Novice driver. As there is no ‘Beginner’ class in the border championship, the Novice awards go down to 6^th in class, as beginners are registered as Novice for the Squealing Pig championship. The Squealing Pig Border Championship prizegiving will take place in the Squealing Pig Monaghan, on Friday May 23^rd, Everyone welcome.

Mayo Motor Club’s Autocross was held on Sunday, Limerick based Monaghan club member Greg Shinnors, took his Subaru Impreza home in 15th overall.

Oisín Sherlock.

Arthur Kierans guided David Kelly to 3^rd overall in their VW Polo GTI R5, on last weekend’s Circuit of Ireland Rally 2025.

Paul Barrett/Darragh Kelly finished just behind them in 5^th place, in their Citroën C3 Rally2.

Ryan Farrell navigated Johnnie Mulholland to 10^th overall and first in Class 4.

David Moffett/Martin Connolly took their Toyota Starlet home in 14^th overall and 3^rd in Class 3.

Domhnall Lennon navigated Michael Cahill to 15^th overall and 4^th in Class 3.

Killian McArdle navigated John Coyne to 18^th overall and 10^th in Class 1.  

Jack Maguire/Keith McConnon finished 27^th overall and 2^nd in class 8.

Pierce O’Callaghan navigated Brian Lavelle to 32^nd overall and 8^th in Class 3.

Cathan McCourt/Barry McNulty finished 52^nd overall and 13^th in Class 1 after finishing the event under Super-Rally rules.

Josh Moffett/Andy Hayes finished 54^th overall and 14^th in Class 1 after also finishing the event under Super-Rally rules.

John McQuaid/Thomas Treanor unfortunately retired from the event on SS4 after breaking a driveshaft in their MKII Ford Escort.

Many thanks to all Monaghan Motor Club members who appeared at the Jonny Treanor Memorial Day for to help with parking cars and to those who brough their cars to the Rally Car display.

Oisín Sherlock

Conor Mohan was the highest placed Co. Monaghan Motor Club CLG member on last Saturday’s, EARS Motorsport Moonraker Forest Rally. Conor and his driver Eamonn Kelly, were using the event for to get used to driving on a gravel surface again, ahead of the next event of the 2025 Junior World Rally Championship, Vodafone Rally de Portugal which takes place between the 15^th and 18^th of May. The last forest/gravel rally they competed on, on the island of Ireland was the, 2024 Trailer Parts and Spares Lakeland Stages Rally, an event in which they finished 2^nd overall. On last weekend’s EARS Motorsport Moonraker, they were driving a similar Ford Fiesta Rally3 to the one that they’ll be using in Portugal, and they finished 4^th overall. Fourth was possibly as good as they could have expected to be, as the event had six very fast stages that suited the more powerful Rally2/R5 cars compared to their Rally3 car.

Greg Shinnors navigated James Dunphy to 7^th overall in their Ford Fiesta R5.

Killian McArdle, suffering no Jet-Lag from Spain, navigated John Coyne to 11^th overall in a Hyundai i20 N Rally2. Jack Casey finished 59^th OA and 3^rd in Class 8 in his VW UP. Domhnall Lennon navigating for Darragh McEnroe, finished 74^th OA, also in a VW UP.

Other Monaghan members were not as fortunate, as Derek Mackarel/Eamonn Creedon got their 2024 Sligo Pallets Forest Rally Championship winning Ford Fiesta R5, beached at a chicane on Special Stage 2, even though the car was undamaged, they were unable free it quickly, so they had to retire from the event. James McCarville/Arthur Kierans also retired on SS2.

Evin Hughes navigated Karl O’Donoghue to 11^th OA in the Galway Endurance Trial on Sunday, they also finished 2^nd in Class A2M. Eoghán Farrell navigated Michael Connolly to 22^nd OA and 2^nd in Class A2N.

Oisín Sherlock

Ryan Farrell was navigating for Johnnie Mulholland on the ‘Go Tour of The Sperrins’ rally on Saturday. The pair finished 23^rd overall, and 1^st in Class 4 in their Ford Fiesta Rally3. Craig McPhillips took part in his first stage rally as a navigator, on the event.  He was navigating for Raymond Gurney in a Subaru Impreza WRX STI. The car had previously been used by Eamonn Boland and MJ, on two World Rally Championship events, back in 2015. Craig and Raymond retired before the start of the final stage, as Craig began to feel very unwell. They had been in 75^th position overall at that time. Thankfully his driver was the only Gurney he needed, as it was only a case of motion/travel sickness, and he began feeling a lot better once he was out of the car and walking around. It genuinely was a sickening reason for retirement.

Killian McArdle was navigating for Casey Jay Coleman in ‘Rally Sierra Morena’, which was the opening round of the 2025 European Rally Championship. The lads had some competitive times, but were hampered on SS3 following a high-speed spin, which cost them 15s. On the final stage of the opening day, they unfortunately picked up a puncture, and with the stage being 27.2km long, they had no choice but to stop and replace the tyre. This stoppage cost them over four minutes, and left the pair feeling deflated themselves, after what had been an encouraging performance up to that point. The puncture dropped the pair from 43^rd overall, to 76^th at the overnight halt. Six more stages lay ahead on day 2 of the event, and by the finish of the final stage, they had climbed back to 53^rd overall and 6^th in the M-Sport Fiesta Rally3 Trophy.

County Monaghan Motor Club CLG are hosting a Pedal Car Race on Sunday, April 27^th. Participants can race three or four wheeled cars or trikes. Each team has two drivers, aged from 13 to 18, and their parent/Guardian, who can be their mechanic/person to roar ‘PEDAL FASTER’. For more information, contact Brendan Flynn via email on brendanflyn@gmail.com

Oisín Sherlock

Sam Moffett and Shane Buckley finished 3^rd overall on last weekend’s Circuit of Kerry Stages Rally. The Tralee based event was Round 2 of the Motorsport Ireland Triton Showers National Rally Championship.

County Kilkenny man Eddie Doherty navigated by County Limerick’s Tom Murphy took a start to finish victory in their Skoda Fabia R5. The pair finished 27.3s ahead of 2^nd placed Robert Barrable/Gordon Noble who were driving a Rally2 version of the Skoda Fabia. (Moffett finished 9.8s off Barrable).

Paul Barrett/Darragh Kelly took their Citroën C3 Rally2 home in 7^th OA and 4^th in Class 5. Brendan Cumiskey/Martin Connolly finished 9^th OA in their VW Polo R5. Michael Carbin/Dean O’Sullivan finished 14^th OA and 4^th in Class 14. Tommy Moffett/Domhnall Lennon finished 25^th OA and 3^rd in Class 2. James McCarville/Arther Kierans finished 26^th OA and 3^rd in Class 13.

Johno Doogan/Paul Lennon retired after SS1. Daniel McConnon navigating for Frank Rafferty, also retired after SS1. Defending national champions, Josh Moffett/Keith Moriarty retired after SS6 with fuel pressure issues. They had been in 2^nd position overall at that stage (pun intended).

Rallye La Llana

Killian McArdle was competing in Spain last week. Killian was navigating for fellow Irishman, Casey Jay Coleman on in a Ford Fiesta Rally3. The pair finished the ten stage, two-day event in 19^th overall. The lads were using this event as a competitive test session for to get the car set up correctly and get a feel for Spanish Tarmac, as they are back in Spain this weekend, competing on the opening round of the European Rally Championship. Last week’s event was ideal for testing as it included three Service’s between the ten stages, so they had plenty of chances to try out different car set ups and find out if the changes worked or not.

The provisional National Navigation Trial Championship, points after the final round were published on Saturday. Ryan Treanor/Shane Dalton are the provisional champions after claiming 102 points in the ‘Best six plus Bonus’ total. A competitor counts their best six results out of the eight championship events, and receive five bonus points for starting six out of the eight events.

Evin Hughes/Pakie Duffy are provisionally in 2^nd place finishing on a total of 96 points. Andrew Mackarel finished 3^rd OA in the ‘Drivers’ championship while his navigator Gregory Shinnors finished 4^th in the ‘Navigators’ championship.

Gregory Shinnors finished 1^st Navigator in the Expert class due to missing out on 3^rd place overall. Oisín Sherlock finished 3^rd Expert Navigator.  Ciaran Maguire/Cathal McGlone, although not competing together as a team, finished 3^rd in the Semi-Expert class.  Gretchen and Martin Swinburne were comfortable winners of the Novice class. Darren Lavery/Aaron McGorman finished 2^nd in the Beginner class. (All results remain provisional at time of writing)

Oisín Sherlock