Motorsport Ireland National Autotest Championship - Round 3 Recap
Round 3 of the IrishAutotesting.com Motorsport Ireland National Autotest Championship took place last Sunday at Kilrush Airfield. This round was hosted by County Kildare Motor Club and had the highest entry of the year so far - 27 drivers started the day at one of the most unusual venues in the Championship. The tests took place surrounding the airfield's hangers, occasionally stopping to allow for helicopters and small aircraft to taxi, take off and land as the good weather attracted pilots as well as drivers!
The Lightweight Championship saw a few changes during this round - with the Grimes brothers absent and Guy Foster suffering car trouble that prevented him from starting. The day was dominated by the RWD Westfields - with Peter Falvey flying into first place and Darren Quille second, continuing to develop his Westfield and finishing just 12 seconds behind. The Lowry brothers followed - Adam Lowry taking third place in his Mini Special and Jack Lowry nipping at his heels in his Mini Saloon, making a great comeback after suffering a driveshaft failure on the first test to finish ahead of Damien Doran. This has led to a few changes in the Championship standings - Peter Falvey now leads the Lightweight section from Darren and Damien, although with two drop scores to be taken into account, reigning Champion Peter Grimes is still the man to beat!
A bumper field of 13 cars took part in the Roadgoing Championship section of the event. John Nolan took his third win by over 40 seconds, continuing to dominate the competition. Brian Kingston (Suzuki Ignis) and Philip O'Reilly (Toyota Starlet) finished the day in second and third place overall on their first outing of the year. This left John McAssey (Starlet) to take FWD class honors ahead of 19 year old NI competitor Harry Wilson (Mini), Austin Quille, Graeme Hade and Chis Pilkingtom at the wheels of various model Starlets. Garrett Kennedy was once again top RWD driver, finishing 6th overall at the wheel of his immaculate MG Midget. This has left the top three relatively unchanged in the Championship standings - Garrett Kennedy (Mazda MX5) is now one point ahead of Austin Quille (Starlet) in their battle for second place overall.
In the Challenge section, Liam Cashman continued his run of first places, making it look easy in his Opel Corsa. Anthony Freeney (Westfield) has now overtaken Liam Croston (Starlet) for second place - having a cleaner day with fewer penalties made all the difference for the Westfield driver.
It was fantastic to see an influx of Novice drivers begin their Championship run at this round. 2025 Junior Munster Autotest Champion Keith Grant took a dominating Novice win at his first round of the year, having upgraded his Nissan Micra in the off season - showing incredible car control at such a young age! Junior driver Oran Giles (Mini 1000) came in second place and Club Member Adam Farrelly was third at the wheel of his roadgoing class Starlet. Leo Nulty debuted his newly purchased lightweight Starlet, double driving with Art McCarrick, and managed to complete all the tests after after radiator issues threatened to end their day early on. Jack Johnston separated the pair as he got to grips with some new modifications to his Toyota Yaris.
Many thanks to County Kildare Motor Club, Kilrush Airfield, all the officials and marshals for pulling off a wonderful event. Full results are available on Stopastride here and keep up to date with the championship standings as they begin to heat up here at irishautotesting.com. The next round will be hosted by Birr and District Motor Club on Sunday the 19th April 2026. The club are also hosting the opening round of the PartsWorld Munster Autotest Championship on the Saturday, the perfect opportunity to make it a full motorsport weekend and get some practice in the day before the National event!
