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October Motorsport News
Donegal Harvest Stages
Photos courtesy of Declan Boyle( www.dbpics.net) and Brendan Flynn
In the Donegal Harvest on Saturday last, Declan and Brian Boyle in their Subaru WRC emerged victorious on the rally and also victorious in the Dunlop National Rally championship which has left them double champions having just secured the tarmac championship a number of weeks ago.
The last time both Championships were won in the same season, Meath’s Tim McNulty was the man atop the podium – in the same S12 B Subaru now driven by Boyle. McNulty won both at the wheel of ‘JT07 SRT’ in 2011.
Winners of the Mayo Stages Rally back in March; the Donegal cousins have enjoyed a tremendous year to date.
They led from start to finish of the nine Donegal stages and held off the advancing Roy White/James O’Brien (MG ZR ) who were also fighting for the championship title. Donagh Kelly/Kevin Flanagan secured second on the rally in their Ford Focus WRC from former National Champion, Claremorris man, Paul McLaughlin who navigated Seamus Leonard to a well-deserved third place overall in their Subaru Impreza.
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Speaking afterwards Paul said “You have to take your hat off to Seamus – his run in the S14 Subaru was his first time at the controls of a left-hand drive car. The stages were great,” he said. “Plenty of narrow steering – that’s what rallying is all about. We’re happy where we finished and we enjoyed the day.”
Unfortunate not to make the finish where South Mayo’s John Warren and Ruthann O’Connor, who had been progressing well until an off road excursion forced their McHale’s Engineering backed Toyota Corolla into retirement. Ballaghaderreen’s Derek Bolton who had Ballina’s Trevor O’Connell on the notes, needed to finish top class fifteen crew to capture the Border Championships class honours but they also retired with mechanical difficulties whilst going well. |
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Border Championship 2014: Moffett/Sherry grab 2014 Border Glory
by Brendan Flynn
The Monaghan pairing of David Moffett and Fintan Sherry have won the 2014 Sligo Pallets Border Rally Championship after taking a 4 class win in a row on the Donegal Harvest Rally. Due to the championship’s class based structure, a number of crews were still in with a chance of taking the title going into the final round. Moffett/Sherry knew that a class win on the day would be enough to claim the title regardless of the opposition’s results. After a titanic battle all day, the pair came through on the final stage to secure the class win and the overall Border championship. Former Border Champions, Brian Armstrong/Mark Tierney secured 2 overall in the championship with a class 12 win with Gene McDonald/Kevin Reilly finishing 3 overall in the series.
The Donegal Harvest Rally was based in Downings this year and included the classic Atlantic Drive stage as the 3 test of 3 with each test done three times. Slippy conditions were the order of the day making tyre choice critical. In class 11R, Moffett & Sherry were involved in a big battle with local crews Paul Carron/Andrew Browne and Paul Gallagher/Patrick Gallagher. Needing victory to secure the championship the pair traded the lead with their rivals throughout the day. Going into the final stage, Gallagher held an 11 second advantage, but the Monaghan crew would be 13 seconds quicker through the final stage to claim the class by a mere 1.2 seconds! Paul Carron/Andrew Browne finished 3 in class ahead of Kevin Bradley & Graham Henderson in 4. Brian Armstrong/Mark Tierney did all they could by taking victory in class 12 but it wasn’t enough for them to take the class in the championship. Martin Toner/Sharon Clarke kept the pressure on them all day to finish 2 in class just 8 seconds behind. The pair also secured 1 in class 12 in the championship. Gene McDonald/Kevin Reilly claimed 3 place in class 9 to secure 3 place overall in the championship.
Class 1-8:
Johnny Wilhare/Darren Shields took the win in class 2 but it was Brian Quigley/Seamus McTigue who took the class in the championship despite retiring on this event. Eamonn Russell/Gavin O’Donnell finished 2 in class in the championship with Mark Boyle/Charles Gallagher in 3. Joe McCarthy/Jason O’Brien won class 3 on the event, but Mark Ewing had already wrapped up class 3 before Round 5. Trevor Bustard/John McCafferty secured class 4 in the championship after the retirement of Pat Kirk/John McElhinney left them in the clear. Eamon McCafferty secured another class 5 success in his Ford Puma. Paddy McDaid/Darragh Kelly won class 6 on the day but Liam Branley/Nathan Burrows claimed the class in the championship despite retiring. Roger Kennedy/Wendy Blackledge continued their remarkable run of success in class 7 with another win to secure the class once again in the championship. 2010 Border Champions, Declan & Brian Boyle stormed to another overall win, which was enough to add the National Championship to the Tarmac Championship they had already won.
Class 9-11R:
Michael & Ryan Brennan claimed class 9 in their Vauxhall Nova on the day but Laurence Sherry/Mark Sheridan secured class 9 in the championship as Gene McDonald/Kevin Reilly who topped the points in class 9 were promoted to 3 overall. Aaron Duffy/Thomas Wedlock finished 2 in class in the championship. John & Niall Kelly won class 10 on the day but Cathal Sheridan took class 10 in the driver’s section after taking 3 in class on the day. Donegal brothers James & JP Logue won class 11F but 3 place secured the class in the championship for Sligo’s Alan Lawson/Sean Harte. Kevin Bradley/Graham Henderson were crowned class 11R champions ahead of Declan Hall/Chris Corr and Barry Treanor/Colm Connolly. They inherited the class due to David Moffett/Fintan Sherry winning the championship outright.
Class 12-20:
Martin Toner/Sharon Clarke wrapped up class 12 honors after Brian Armstrong/Mark Tierney were promoted out of the class positions by finished 2 overall. James Cassidy/Declan Smith were runners-up in the class after finishing 5 in Donegal with Justin Smyth taking 3 overall driver. Colin Flanagan/Patrick Brides secured class 15 in the championship ahead of Derek Bolton/Trevor O’Connell after the latter failed to finish. Michael Carbin/Emmet McCooey secured class 20 in the championship taking 2 in class in Donegal behind Roy White/James O’Brien. Stefan McCann/Stephen McElroy had already secured victory in the Junior section even before this event. A great achievement for this crew in their 1 year competing.
Another year for the Sligo Pallets Border Rally Championship comes to a close with David Moffett & Fintan Sherry becoming 1 time champions, adding their names to the long list of winners. The 2014 Prizegiving will take place on Saturday 1 November in the Sligo Park Hotel, Sligo. Once again the Border Championship has proven to be the one of the most well supported and competitive championships in Ireland.
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Cork 20 Report: Duffy’s guidance brings result
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Australia based Irish men, Pauric Duffy and Kevin Glynn made the long trip home to compete at the Cork 20 International Rally over the weekend, in their recently acquired Ford Fiesta R5. The pair, who made their rallying debut on the Galway International Rally in February of this year, took on the challenge of the new car and the tough Cork Stages.
Speaking from his Silverstrand HQ in Brisbane Australia, before the event Pauric commented, “I’m really looking forward to driving the new car in Cork, I will be using the R5+ version which will be a huge step up from the Citroen c2r2 I used all year. The biggest challenge will be that the Fiesta is left hand drive, in Australia you cannot drive a LHD car by law, so I am just going to Cork to, enjoy it and get some more rally km’s completed before the 2015 season kicks off in Galway in February”.
The car was prepared by Philip Case Rallysport, with the team getting assistance and tuition from Killian Duffy. Indeed it’s the
Mayo man’s job between navigating on the World Rally Stage and running his successful pace notes business that all needs of the Australia based Irish Rally Team are meet using his vast experience in Motorsport and on-event support.
Conditions were far from perfect in Cork on Saturday and Sunday but Pauric and Kevin surpassed expectations as they navigated their way through the long stages that were quiet a test of man and machine. In what was a superb result they finished fourth overall in the national section of the rally, winning Class 20 in the process.
Looking forward to 2015, Killian Duffy Motorsport and Silverstrand Rally partnership will certainly be one to watch!
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Autocross news
Photos by Maggie Bonner
Closer to home this weekend seven members of Mayo and District Motorsport Club made the short trip to Saehan in Sligo for the Connacht Motorclub’s Autocross event. Best to finish was Padraig Mullen who won Class 9 and finished eighth overall in his Subaru Impreza, next up was Foxford’s Alan Moran who was double driving James McGreal’s Subaru. Alan unfortunately broke the golden rule and went faster than the man who lend him the car, finishing runner up in Class 9 and fourteenth overall, it will remain to be seen if James, who could only manage twentieth overall but third in Class will hand over the keys in the future!
Kililla’s Padraic Roche was fourth in Class 4 and sixteenth overall in his Escort MK2, Michael Loughney who gave his immaculate Escort its tarmac debut was delighted with second in Class 1 and twenty-sixth overall. Martin Burke was another to enjoy the day in his Mk2 sliding it to thirty-eight place. Raymond Carroll in his Nova was forty-sixth.
Competing at the Galway Motorclub Loose Surface Autocross held Ballycumber, Co. Offaly on Sunday, Westport’s Alan McGuire, despite rolling his Peugeot 205 on his last run claimed third in Class 2, but faces a busy winter addressing his car for the 2015 season.
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Other Recent Events:
Club members competing at GSMC Mini-Stages Rally on Sunday last, Aaron MacHale with Paul McGee on the notes finished 5th overall and won Class 4 while Darragh Mullen, navigating for David Leonard finished 10th and first in Class 20
Photos courtesy of Rally Through a lens
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Alan McGuire who competed at a recent Galway Autocross
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