For the second year in succession, Dessie Keenan and Enda Sherry were the clear winners of the Monaghan Hillgrove Hotel round of the Dunlop National Rally Championship on Sunday, heading a clean sweep of the top five places for Subaru Imprezas.
Despite a puncture on the final stage, they were more than half a minute ahead of three times National champion and fellow Monaghan driver Niall Maguire, who beat Cavan rival Patrick Elliott by just one second to take the championship points lead.
GALWAY HILLCLIMBS
Defending champion Paul O'Connell kept his unbeaten record this year with two more clear wins in Galway MC's Ballyvaughan Hillclimb Weekend giving him a commanding lead in the Magnus Technology National Championship, although he was slightly slower each day than last year, probably in the absence of the fierce battle of twelve months ago. At Ballyryan on Saturday, he was more than 2s quicker than Russell Stanworth's Reynard FVL, with Simon McKinley's Escort dropping from second to third overall on the second run. Peter Dwyer's Reynard was close behind, followed by Sean Connole, making his debut in the ex-Sylvie Mullins Ralt RT33.
Sunday's daunting 2.2 miles of Ballyallaban, with its traditional Galway stone walls, is by far the longest hill in Ireland, with its four year old record standing to Pat Roche's Hayabusa engined OMS. O'Connell was out on his own on the first climb, no less than 8.7s clear of Seamus Morris' Darrian which was just ahead of the hard-charging McKinley Escort, with both Stanworths, father and son, and Peter Dwyer close behind. Run two saw the Escort take over runner up position from Morris, with Dwyer improving to fourth and the Stanworth Reynard not running, slipping to fifth and sixth places. O'Connell was very fortunate to reach the top, as he suffered a collapsed LH rear suspension just as he began his return run down the hill. As a result, he didn't take a second climb. Darryl Ramsay's OMS was another with suspension problems, completing his second, faster run with one wheel at a strange angle on his way to ninth overall and a class win.
WEEKEND SPORTING TRIAL
At the end of two days near Carlow, the traditional season-ending finale, the Weekend Sporting Trial, was decided on the first of two extra tie-break sections, with Brian Conlon taking the Sheaffer Pen Trophy for the second year in succession after both he and Ian Meredith had cleaned every one of the 24 sections. On the decisive section, Conlon's Honda engined Erskine again made it all the way while his rival couldn't get past the 2 marker. Earlier on Sunday, the VW Special broke a driveshaft just before the end of a section, but Meredith still managed to limp through the 0 to stay in the hunt. Another tie-break saw Gerald Kehoe Junior take third place from Gordon Watkins, with each of them losing a single mark on Saturday and being among the nine who cleaned Sunday. Unusually, the winner of Grade A was down in fifth overall in the form of John Bolton.
LAOIS AUTOTEST
Chris Grimes was the clear winner of Sunday's Laois Rallysport Club Autotest in Port Laoise, with his Mini saloon 16s ahead of Paddy Power's Mini Special at the end. Novice Alan Coyle was third overall in another Mini Special.