Noel Murphy and Shauna McEveney made the trip to a very wet and slippy Westmeath District Motor Club Rallysprint on Sunday 23 August. With conditions at the Athboy Kart track similar to an ice ring, the pair managed to keep the Honda Civic on the tarmac, setting some very competitive times, they finished the day 5th in class and in 16th place overall; a very good result out of 50 starters.
Round four of the 2015 Valvoline Motorsport Ireland National Forestry Championship, was the Cork Motor Club’s Jim Walsh Cork Forestry Rally, based in Mallow. Two Mayo crews made the trip south, both in search of solid performances to strengthen their bid on overall championship placings.
Alan Moran, who had Galway’s John Burke on the notes, faced fierce competition in the Junior section of the event. Up against much more technically advanced machinery, the young Foxford man was on many occasions, seen to be driving his Peugeot 206 Cup car well above expectations. This fine display was rewarded with a fourth place overall finish behind Junior Championship leader Patrick O’Brien in his Citroen C2R2, Kevin Eves in his Peugeot 208 R2 and Ian Downey in his Opel Corsa. The result and collection of a further eight points moves Moran into second place overall in the Junior championship with three rounds remaining.
Westport’s Ed Muldoon was another Mayo man on a mission. With regular co-driver Mark Byrne along side in the DJ Rally Mitsubshi Evo 6, the pair battled through the extremely slippy conditions to also finish fourth in their class, again notching up valuable championship points.
The overall winner of the event was local driver Owen Murphy in a Mitsubshi Evo 9. Monaghan’s Josh Moffett, also in an Evo 9, set the early pace and it was tit for tat until Murphy picked up the tempo on stage six and extended the gap to 7.4 seconds by the finish, to record his third Cork Forestry victory.
Round five of the Valvoline Irish Forest Rally Championship is the Enniskillen based Lakeland Stages Rally on Saturday September 5th.
Link to the points after round 4:
http://www.irishforestrally.com/#!about/c1ekx
Maynooth’s Ian Barrett backed up
his June win in ‘The Valley’ and once again claimed victory on Mayo & District Motorsport Club’s Loose Surface July Autocross event on Sunday last. Driving a Semog Buggy, he blitzed his competition early on and did not relent throughout the day to take a second comprehensive win in a row.
A full entry of competitors gathered for the third of four autocross events to be held this year. It was also a counting round of the 5 Star Catering National Loose Surface Autocross Championship. This championship, which is sponsored by Batt O’Donoghoe’s Five Star Catering from Co. Cork, brought more new faces to the Mayo venue, all of whom were delighted with the facilities on offer.
Heavy rain overnight and during the morning meant that the track was extremely wet and challenging for all competitors; with slurry like sand traps laying in wait to bog down anybody who slid wide.
Barrett in his Joule backed Buggy outlined his intentions from the start, setting a time of 4:17.54 almost ten seconds clear of the trailing pack on the first run of the day. Much like in the June event Ronan Mackle was his closest rival also in a Semog Buggy, with James Cassidy in another similar machine rounding up the early running at the front of the field.
On the second run the rain had stopped but conditions remained challenging due to the level of ground water. Barrett’s time from the first run couldn’t be bettered even by the man himself. However, Donegal man Seamus Donnelly managed to come within a second of the time in his buggy and in doing so moved into second place. Martin Tynan from Monaghan managed to break up the buggy dominance in his Mitsubishi Evo by moving up into third position overall.
This left things finely poised as we headed into the third and final run of the day, with top positions still up for grabs. Both Barrett and Donnelly failed to set a time for mechanical reasons but their rapid times from earlier in the day meant they took first and second overall, respectively. The big mover was Padraig Egan from Clare in yet another Semog Buggy. He set an excellent final time of 4:20.83 to take the final podium spot, relegating Martin Tynan to fourth.
In the numerous classes, the competition was no less ferocious. Class 1 honours went to Adrian Foley from Cavan in his Nova who just pipped fellow Cavan man Anthony McDonald.
Young pocket rocket Derek Mackerel won class 2 in his 1600cc 8 valve Nova. Declan Raferty in his Peugeot was second with Seamus Coffey third.
In the competitive class 3, Omagh man David Kerr put in a superb final time to take the top spot driving a Peugeot 106. Alan Moran from Foxford managed to take second in the class with his first time of the day, despite his day to a premature end when he rolled his Peugeot 206 on his second run, the only damage being panels and pride. Rodney Donaldson from Enniskillen was third in an Escort.
John Gordan from Newry was the winner in class 4, ahead of Ashley Ruthledge and Walter Burke, all in Ford Escorts.
Class 5 for four wheel drive cars was hotly contested and Martin Tynan did enough in his Evo to take top honours. Patrick O’Brien was second in a similar car with Foxford man James McGreal third in his familiar Subaru.
Johnny Kenneally travelled all the way from Cork to win class 6 in his Honda Special.
Class 7 for motorcycle engined buggies was won by Seamus Donnelly with aforementioned Padraig Egan third.
17 year old Patrick McEveny Jnr from Castlebar continued his dominance of class 8 for Junior competitors in the family Corolla.
Father and son duo Seamus and Oisín Coffey from Ballyhaunis were both competing for the first time, ironically in a Peugeot 205 that in the late 1990’s brought much success to fellow club member Sean McHugh. Despite having water related problems early in the day, they finished brilliantly with young Oisín gaining in confidence and speed as the day went on, taking second in the Junior class. Andrew Moore from Meath also on his first outing on gravel, finished third in a Peugeot 106.
There were many local Mayo competitors finishing well throughout the field Adrian Deane picked up the club award. Sean McHugh claimed the local; Subaru’s are better than Evo’s bragging rights over Ed Muldoon, the Bekan man finishing one place ahead of the Westport man. Tony Langdon and Patrick Durkan from Ballina double drove their Peugeot 106 and put in some good times in the competitive class 3. Patrick McEveny senior was double driving with son Patrick Jnr and he finished seventh in class 3. Martin Hastings from Bonniconlon drove his Renault 5 to 10th in the same class.
After yet another successful and well ran event we now look forward to the fourth and final round on August 23rd
Full Resultsin PDF & Excel:
Results July 2015
Link to full facebook album:
https://www.facebook.com/media set/ set=a.1030469160319804.1073741858.100000701896986 type=1&l=62ef294168
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Donegal driver Donagh Kelly and his Derry co-driver Kevin Flanagan in their Ford Focus WRC clinched the Triton Showers National Rally Championship courtesy of second place on the McCormack Opel -Sligo Park Hotel Rally, round six of the eight round series.
Outgoing champion, Declan Boyle and his co-driver Brian Boyle (Ford Fiesta WRC) won the event, finishing thirty seconds ahead of the new champions, who were presented with the Vard Memorial Trophy at the finish ramp in Sligo.
First Mayo club local over the finish line was Darragh Mullen who navigated Mark Geraghty to 2nd place in class 11F and 26th place overall. Top local crew home was Castlebar’s Barry Cuffe who had Aidan Gannon alongside. The pair brought their Ford Escort Mk2 home 5th in class and 43rd overall. David Healy and Stephen McGing dominated class one, leading from start to finish and coming home in 45th place. Belmullet’s Shane Barry ably navigated Fergal Callaghan to 76th in their Corolla Twincam. John Duffy and John Egan were lucky finished the event, a good recovery after an off road excursion seen the pair finish 6th in class 3 and in 80th place overall. Aubrey Carson and Mary McAndrew guided their Vauxhall Nova to 5th in class 10 and 84th overall.
Other locals taking part in the main field that were not so lucky included Michael and Fergal Loughney, who retired their Mk2 Escort on the second loop and Darren Gilmartin who also finished calling notes on the second loop. Derek Bolton failed to start the event after mechanical trouble before scrutiny cut his weekend short, also falling short of the start line were Crossmolina father and son team Ronan and Lorcan Moore, suffering terminal gearbox trouble in their escort on the way to Saturday scrutiny.
In the Junior category Roscommon’s Cormac Phelan and Katja Auhl were easy winners, taking command from the start in their Citroen C2R2. Ballina’s Derek McCarthy navigating Sligo man Stephen Reynolds finished 3rd just ahead of Justin Ryan and Andy Walsh. Crossmolina pairing of Brian Moore and Stephen Gallagher put in a spirited drive on their first event to finish 5th narrowly ahead of Noel Murphy and Stephen Monaghan.
