News from the Weekend

Dubliner Simon McKinley scored his seventh and eighth wins of the year at Knockalla Hillclimb in Donegal at the weekend to win the Connaught Competition Engines Hillclimb and Sprint Championship for the first time. He also set a new record time for the famous course on both days, with his Lant finally beating the previous best by a clear 1.55 seconds.

Three times champion Paul O’Connell led the points table going into the weekend, and his second place on Saturday left him in a strong position to take a fourth title. However, his Pilbeam crashed out on the practice run yesterday morning and although he did one timed run in his older, championship winning Delta, he was out of contention and gearbox problems prevented him from continuing.

Monaghan rally driver Daniel McKenna scored another impressive win when he and Andrew Grennan were well clear of the opposition in the Castle Hellfire Rally at Oldcastle, while J J Farrell and Steven Ferguson shared the honours in the opening two rounds of the Hewison Autotest Championship in Cork.