The third round of the FIA Middle East Rally Championship, the Jordan Rally concluded on Saturday at the Dead Sea with Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah taking the win ahead of Abdulaziz Al Kuwari and Mayo navigator Killian Duffy who finished second in their Skoda Fabia R5.
It was a good result for the Qatari Irish pairing after drama during Stage 10 on Friday afternoon. After colliding with a rock and damaging a wheel resulting in their car leaving the road, once they re-joined they had dropped to fifth and on the final day battled back to finish the event in second place.
Donagh Kelly and co-driver Conor Foley retained the Cartell.ie International Rally of the Lakes title in Kerry recently. Alistair Fisher in his R5 took second, which was enough to put him into the lead in the Irish Tarmac series, while Sam Moffett, also driving a Fiesta R5, was third.
Best Mayo competitor was Aaron Mac|Hale who had his best result of the season to-date with seventh place overall.
Westport’s David Carney retired early in the event with mechanical trouble.
In the Junior section Trisha Greavy navigated Kerry’s Shane McCarthy to second overall.
Justin Ryan & Noel Murphy secured third & forth place championship points finishing tenth & eleventh respectively overall to extend their Championship first and second places overall.
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Closer to home this weekend several members of Mayo & District Motorsport Club were in action competing at the Monaghan Stages Rally, Top local finisher was Andrew Grennan, the Monaghan native, now residing in Aghamore navigated Tyrone’s Vivian Hamill to 8th overall and 4th place in class 14. Darragh Mullen guided Shane Forde to top spot in Class 2 and 41st overall. The Castlebar and Westport pairing of Barry Cuffe and Stephen McGing survived some high speed sideways moments in their Mk2 Escort to finish in 46th and 7th in class. James McGreal and Chris Mitchell brought their Mitsubishi Evo home 2nd in Class and 64th overall. Achill’s Brian Lavelle and Lorcan Moore recovered from a driveshaft problem on the opening loop to rejoin under rally 2 and finished 3rd in Class 1 and in 80th place overall. Unlucky not to finish the event was Ballina’s Derek McCarthy who was navigating for Stephen Reynolds, they had an off road excursion in their Honda Civic on the opening loop.
The event was won by Monaghan local Josh Moffett in a WRC Fiesta who finished 40 seconds of his brother Sam in a Fiesta R5.
Last weekend also seen the return of Liam Devaney and his trusty Peugeot 205, he was in action at the Galway & Clare Motorclub Ballyvaughan Hill climb
It was disappointment for Killian Duffy in South America on Saturday when the Mayo man who was co-driving for Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari at Rally Argentina, led the WRC-2 section of the 4 day event from Special Stage 4 to Special Stage12, only to roll their Skoda Fabia onto its roof with 6 stages remaining on the event. The roll resulted in damage being caused to the 4 wheel drive system in the Skoda leaving them with only rear wheel drive and also sustaining a puncture that needed changing when they got the car facing back up the correct way.
Looking back the incident only cost the pair 10 minutes delay but this was enough to knock them out of the lead and wipe any chances or regaining with the time and distance remaining, it didn’t however rule them out as managed to rejoin and finish the event in 3rd place and collect valuable championship points.
Speaking afterwards the Qatari driver said “It was in a very fast section where there was a left hand bend that we carried too much speed towards. We slid and I couldn’t steer the car any more, we went into a bank and we rolled into a field. My co-driver Killian and I were both okay – that’s the main thing the car is strong lots of safety equipment.”
Killian added “We expected the rally to be extremely tough, and that proved to be the case. The route was very rough. In places it was even more extreme than previous years. We were lucky to recover after the roll and come away with third place. Race pro Motorsport done a fantastic job of repairing the car in service allowing us to continue and after leaving the last round in Mexico empty-handed, it was important to score points”.
Sean McHugh was in action at the recent Multi-Venue Autotest ran by Connacht Motorclub. It was COC Patrick Corcoran’s first time running a MVAT, It consisted of a good mix of concrete yards ,tarmac, gravel, quarries, grass and the ever loved mud.
The tests were at beginner level as it was a first time for many competitors. It was a huge success and no doubt that the interest is going to grow for this event in the future. Sean finished the day 4th in Class and 15th overall, an excellent result as he actually compete without a navigator and had the much more difficult task of trying to memorize the many tests.
Another chapter of the Alan Moran Magical Forest Rally show was screened at a sun kissed Ballyvourney on Saturday last. The young Foxford man was delighted to kick start his forest season at Round two of the 2016 Valvoline Motorsport Ireland National Forest Rally Championship, the Moonraker Forest Rally, in County Cork.
Moran, and his navigator David Loughney from Ballina, who was participating in his first forest rally, dominated 7 out of the 8 stages in the Junior section. With a lead of just over 50 seconds at the final service the current Mayo Young Driver Champion exercised caution on the final loop to avoid trouble and bring his ‘Big Red Barn’ backed Peugeot 206 home with a winning margin of 20 seconds at the finish.
Speaking afterwards Alan expressed his delighted to be back in the car on Forest stages, he felt really comfortable through the day and thanked his navigator David for an excellent job on the notes, he also thanked his service crew of James McGreal and Sean McHugh who insured the car didn’t miss a beat all day, “They earned their reputation as one of the best service crews around”, Moran added when a mechanical problem in the last service resulted in the starter motor having to be changed in a matter of minutes, as service is against the clock in these events any delay would have resulted in Moran occurring a time penalty, this however wasn’t an issue for the McGreal and McHugh and they got the Peugeot back out on the stages inside the allotted time.
Also having an excellent run in the event was London based Westport man Ed Muldoon who was having his first outing of 2016, stepping up to a more powerful machine than last year he was behind the wheel of a DJ Rally-Hire Mitsubishi Evo 9. Setting some impressive times Muldoon with navigator Mark Byrne finished the event 2nd in Class 4 and 20th overall, a magnificent result for the pair.
Next up, Round 3 on the 7th May, the Tour of the Sperrins Forest Rally is based in Co Derry.
Always popular with competitors, once again, Mayo & District Motorsport Club will be running three championships as part of its 2016 Autocross season. The Frank Harrington Challenge trophy is awarded to the overall champion driver and all competitors are automatically eligible, with points awarded on overall finishing positions. Driver’s best three scores from the four events count towards final championship totals. There are awards for first, second and third placed competitors. Maynooth’s Ian Barrett dominated the overall Frank Harrington Championship in 2015 with his two event wins, he was followed by two more buggy boys, Ronan Mackle and James Cassidy who took second and third respectively.
Also the highly competitive Mayo & District Club Member Overall Frank Harrington Awards are on offer for again, the highest placed three club members in the Championship. In 2015 Foxford’s James McGreal proved experience was no match for youth and exuberance as he stormed away with the overall club championship award. Adrian Deane secured second, after three solid performances in his buggy and Alan Moran in his Peugeot 206 claimed third.
Additionally, the Mayo Young Driver Challenge continues in 2016. This competition is open to Mayo & District Motorsport Club members under the age of 30 on the first of January 2016, and has seen some highly competitive driving from up and coming competitors over the years. Last year Foxford’s Alan Moran reclaimed the Young Driver title and stopped Shrule’s Noel Murphy making it 3 in a row. Alan’s fine performances in the Irish Forest Championship through 2015 had him match fit when the local Autocross events came round. With rumours of cars exchanging hands over the winter and some new purchases being made around the district, the year ahead sure looks interesting in the Mayo Young Driver Championship.
Also for our third round in July we will once again play host to the 5 Star Catering National Loose Surface Autocross Championship. This National Championship, now in its fourth season, continues to grow from strength to strength and has been a fruitful hunting ground for Mayo members in the past three years, with not only many overall class awards claimed by Mayo drivers but also an overall title for Derek Deane in 2013 and an overall Junior title win for Oisin Coffey in 2015.
Due to circumstances beyond our control, Mayo & District Motorsport Club are unable to run the following classes at our Harrington’s Quarry venue for the upcoming season; Class 6, 7 & 10 for Buggies and Specials. We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause competitors, and we appreciate your understanding. Further details regarding a venue for our National Championship Round on July 24th are to follow, keep an eye on our website.
Autocross can be a great, low budget way to break into Motorsport as many of our young (and some not so young) drivers will testify and the introduction of a class for 14-16 year olds who hold a Junior license in saloon cars up to 1450cc in 2016 is another step in development of a young driver to elite athlete level. If you want to compete in any form of sport at the very highest level, it is critical to develop skills from a young age, and we here at Mayo & District Motorsport Club look forward to providing a facility and environment for that development.
Our Loose Surface dates for 2016 are;
May 8th – June 12th – July 24th – August 21st
Regulations and entry form for the opening round on May 8th will be online approximately two weeks before the event on our club website www.mayomotorsportclub.com
